TAUNTON, Sept 1, (Agencies): Three Pakistan players embroiled in betting scam allegations headed to London on Wednesday to face questioning which is almost certain to sideline them from the team’s tour of England.
Test captain Salman Butt plus bowlers Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif look set to miss Pakistan’s match with county side Somerset in Taunton Thursday, a warm-up match before their limited overs internationals against England.
The trio, all casually dressed, left the team hotel in Taunton at 11:12 am (1012 GMT) accompanied by team security officer Major Khawaja Najam, flanked by private security guards and police officers.
Butt shook his head when asked by a reporter if he was “guilty”.
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 on Thursday.
“The boys are leaving today (Wednesday). They will have a meeting at the High Commission (Embassy) tomorrow (Thursday),” Pakistan team manager Yawar Saeed had earlier told reporters.
It appears increasingly likely the trio will play no further part in the tour amid mounting calls for the trio to be barred from appearing while the probe into the allegations is ongoing.
Following the Somerset warm-up, Pakistan play two Twenty20 matches against England in Cardiff on Sunday and Tuesday, then five one-day internationals.
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.
Its chief executive Haroon Lorgat hopes there will be “some sort of conclusion” to the probe within the next few days.
England’s players meanwhile are reportedly reluctant to line up against a Pakistan team containing the tainted trio, according to Professional Cricketers’ Association chief executive Angus Porter.
“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.
Meanwhile 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 Wednesday.
The bowler had been slated to play the lead role in the Malayalam-language film “Mazhavillinattamvare” (Till 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 (185,000 euros, $230,000) to arrange for deliberate no-balls to be bowled at precise points in last week’s Test match against England.
The information would be of enormous value to the spot-betting industry, where money is wagered on specific incidents in matches. Majeed was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud bookmakers in the wake of the allegations, but was released on bail without charge on Sunday, to return at a later date.
Meanwhile, Pakistan one-day captain Shahid Afridi said he was looking forward to getting back to cricket despite the “challenge” of leading a team engulfed in a spot-fixing scandal.
Pakistan are due to play Somerset here Thursday in their first game since several members of the side were implicated in a betting scam.
Afridi, speaking to reporters at Somerset’s County Ground on Wednesday, said: “We are definitely looking forward to getting back to cricket. We did a very good practice session yesterday (Tuesday).
“Myself and the coach (Waqar Younis) are trying to keep morale high. It’s always very difficult in these conditions against a good team but they are all really focused.”
Afridi didn’t play in that match, having resigned the Test captaincy after Pakistan’s 150-run loss in the first of two Tests against Australia at Lord’s in July.
But the leg-spinning all-rounder remained captain of Pakistan’s one-day and Twenty20 teams.
He has now returned for the limited overs leg of the tour, which sees Pakistan play two Twenty20 internationals against England — the reigning world champions in that format — in Cardiff on Sunday and Tuesday, before the teams contest a five-match one-day series.
Afridi insisted his players would be able to put the furore to one side and concentrate on the task at hand when they faced Somerset. Former Australian cricket captain Mark Taylor said suspending Pakistan from international cricket over alleged match fixing would be “too harsh”.
Taylor said it would be detrimental to cricket if an entire nation was banned because of the conduct of individuals.
Asked about whether Pakistan should be banned if the allegations prove true, Taylor said he “didn’t agree with that, I think it’s too harsh a penalty for one nation.”
“If they have one person, two people, three people involved in match-fixing or fixing certain deliveries ... to throw the whole nation?” he continued. “No, I’m not for that.” Taylor said banning Pakistan would not serve to lift the stain of match fixing from cricket.
“You’re always going to ask those questions,” he said. “(If) you throw them out, when they come back you’re still going to ask those questions.
“I think all you can do is penalize the individuals and embark on an education process and hopefully stop people from doing this sort of thing, but I think throwing the nation out of world cricket I don’t think is right.”
Taylor said combatting match fixing was a major challenge, not just in cricket.
“(Match-fixing) is probably there in all sports,” he said.