That seems to be Dileep Premchandran’s hypothesis in his latest entry on the Guardian Cricket website. It should not be surprising that an eighteen year old from a deprived background falls for a couple of thousand pounds. The most interesting comparison on the lack of money in Pakistani cricket compared to their IPL playing, bling-blinging counterparts across the Punjab border was this:
Little has changed. The £4,000 cheque Mohammad Amir received for being Pakistan’s player of the series was three times the monthly retainer he gets from the PCB. It is just over half what Ishant Sharma, India’s most exciting bowling prospect when he signed for the Kolkata Knight Riders in 2008, received for every ball he bowled in the Indian Premier League.
It probably is all down to Cricket’s most unpopular (ex) commissioner, a certain Mr. Modi. If he hadn’t gone after the ICL, all guns blazing, there might still have been a viable way for up and coming Pakistani players to make some money, and not get distracted by shady “fixers” hanging around the hotel room.