But Afridi told reporters at Sophia Gardens on Monday that the players had been warned.
“The people are coming from the ICC [International Cricket Council] and they are always talking about these things.,” he said ahead of Tuesday’s second Twenty20 international at the Gardens.
“If you have any problems, you definitely go straight to the [team] manager and talk to him.”
Salman Butt, the Pakistan test captain, and bowlers Mohammad Aamer, who is just 18, and Mohammad Asif have been suspended from the international game after Britain’s News of the World tabloid allegedly caught Mazhar Majeed, a London-based businessman, organizing no-balls to order during last month’s Lord’s Test against England.
ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat has been among those, including former England captain Michael Atherton, who have suggested that Aamer’s age should be taken into consideration if the allegations against him proved to be true.
But Pakistan’s associate manager, Shafqat Rana, ruled out youth as a defense.
“I think it should be the same with everybody, if he breaks the law,” Rana said.
Asif, Aamer’s fellow seamer, once played alongside Stuart Broad at English county side Leicestershire. Broad said on Monday that he was such an admirer of Asif that he had planned to speak to him ahead of England’s defense of the Ashes later this year.
But when asked if he sympathized with the situation the Pakistan team found itself in as a result of the allegations, Broad was uncharitable.
“Sympathy? No. At the end of the day, as cricketers, you’ve got one job, and that’s to perform on the pitch,” he said.
Turning to Asif, Broad added that the allegations had possibly put their relationship in jeopardy. “It’s a difficult position and hard to comment on,” he said.
“Throughout this series I was saying to him, ‘At the end of this series I would like to have a chat with you about Australia.’ But with him being left out of the squad now, it’s probably not going to happen.”
Broad, 24, said players were well informed about the dangers of match-fixing.
“I don’t think any player could ever have an excuse — ‘I didn’t know,’ or ‘We weren’t educated,’ ” he said.
