Three Pakistan players embroiled in betting scam allegations headed to London yesterday to face questioning which is almost certain to sideline them from the team’s tour of England.
Test captain Salman Butt plus bowlers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif look set to miss Pakistan’s match with county side Somerset in Taunton today, a warm-up match before their limited overs internationals against England.
The trio, all casually dressed, left the team hotel in Taunton at 11:12am accompanied by team security officer Major Khawaja Najam, flanked by private security guards and police officers.
The trio were due to face questions from Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ijaz Butt and Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan’s high commissioner (ambassador) to Britain, in London today.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has promised “prompt and decisive action” if the “spot-fixing” allegations linked to betting rings made by Britain’s biggest-selling newspaper are proven.
England’s players, meanwhile, are reportedly reluctant to line up against a Pakistan team containing the tainted trio, Professional Cricketers’ Association chief executive Angus Porter said.
“The England players understand it is important the games go ahead and they will be professional, but they would or will find it really difficult to play against the guys directly implicated,” Porter told the Daily Telegraph.
Customs officials in Britain, meanwhile, said they had arrested and bailed two men and a woman “as part of an ongoing investigation into money laundering.”
A source confirmed the arrests were linked to the cricket scandal.
The ramifications of the affair were being felt far beyond the world of cricket, with Asif dropped from a planned role in a film, Indian media reported yesterday.
The bowler had been scheduled to play the lead role in the film Mazhavillinattamvare (Until the Tip of the Rainbow), which charts the life of a Pakistani cricket coach in the southern Indian state of Kerala.
The furore erupted on Sunday when the News of the World alleged Mazhar Majeed, a 35-year-old agent for several Pakistan players, took £150,000 (US$230,000) to arrange for deliberate no-balls to be bowled at precise points in last week’s Test against England. Majeed was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud bookmakers, but was released on bail without charge on Sunday.
Meanwhile in Australia, it has emerged that four cricket stars were targeted by a suspected illegal bookmaker.
Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson and two teammates were targeted by the unnamed figure who approached them in England last year, reports said yesterday.
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