Trapped young players

The turmoil in Pakistan cricket took another extraordinary twist when Zulqarnain Haider fled Dubai for London claiming he had received death threats following the fourth one-day international against South Africa which he helped win. It has once again throw the spotlight on the murky, and dangerous, world of bookmakers and match-fixing. In the Guardian, Mike Selvey looks at what the impact of Haider's move could be and says his life won't get any easier.

If you think this is an exaggeration, hyperbole, then think again. Not all attempts at match- or spot-fixing, perhaps few, involve massive personal gain for the perpetrators or greed on their part. The rewards are for others, the players pawns in the game. They are in a vortex from which they cannot escape. But perhaps Zulqarnain has evaded it and, if so, he is already a brave lad who has defied some extremely nasty people.