Cricket
PCB will not suspend players
2010-08-31 10:37
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Karachi - Pakistan's cricket board will not suspend its national players while investigations into spot-fixing allegations in England are probed, spokesperson for the board said on Tuesday.
VIDEO: News of the World match-fixing stingSeven Pakistani players are being investigated by Scotland Yard detectives on allegations of deliberately no-balling during the team's fourth and final Test against England, which Pakistan lost on Sunday.
"Chairperson Ijaz Butt just told me that since there is a case going on with the Scotland Yard we are not going to suspend any player," Pakistan Cricket Board spokesperson Nadeem Sarwar said.
"He further said that this is only an allegation so far. There is still no charge or proof on that account. So at this stage there will be no action taken."
Sarwar refused to comment on reported demands by the International Cricket Council and some of the England players to suspend the men under investigation.
The inquiry follows a British Sunday tabloid newspaper sting in which a bookmaker allegedly paid Pakistani players to deliberately bowl the no-balls.
Britain's biggest-selling paper, the News of the World, claimed it had paid middleman Mazhar Majeed 150 000 pounds ($230 000, 185 000 euros) for exact details of three deliberate no-balls in the match.
British broadsheet The Daily Telegraph said it understood that the International Cricket Council (ICC) had asked the PCB for the four players cited in the allegations to be dropped from the squad for the forthcoming limited overs matches against England. But no official request has been made.
Other British press reported that the England and Wales Cricket Board was privately adamant that the players at the centre of the allegations should be omitted from the series.
Following reporting of the sting on Sunday, the ICC said corruption would not be tolerated and anyone found guilty of "spot-fixing" would be punished.
England were due to announce Tuesday their squad for the two Twenty20 and five one-day internationals with Pakistan despite the allegations swirling round the tourists.
Meanwhile the Pakistan team have shifted camp from London to Taunton in southwest England where they were to begin preparing for Thursday's warm-up match with county side Somerset.