London/Islamabad, Aug 31 (IANS) On a day of swift developments, British authorities arrested three people in connection with the alleged match-fixing by Pakistani cricketers and it became untenable for the four players questioned by the investigators to figure in the one-day series against England.
In Islamabad, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the government will take strong action against the players if found guilty. He also introduced a new element by hinting at a conspiracy to defame his country.
‘We are looking into all the possible angles because this could also be a conspiracy against the country. Fake videos can also be made to malign somebody because anything is possible in this age of technology. Nothing has been proven as yet,’ Malik said.
Malik said a team of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) sleuths will be dispatched to London to collect the facts if needed.
‘The match fixing scandal has taken place in England and investigations are underway there. The government will carry out further investigations once the inquiry by the Scotland Yard comes to an end,’ he added.
The interior minister expressed his disappointment over the incident but cautioned that ‘it would not be appropriate to propagate against the Pakistani team unless everything is probed.’
In London, three players — captain Salman Butt and bowlers Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif — who are at the centre of the controversy for allegedly underperforming in the fourth Test against England, were questioned by Scotland Yard officers at their hotel and their mobile phones confiscated, The Guardian reported.
It appears increasingly likely they will be asked to withdraw from the remainder of the tour. They will meet Pakistani team officials Wednesday.
The team manager, Yawar Saeed, made the announcement in the team hotel Tuesday, saying the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, Ijaz Butt, and the country’s high commissioner would attend the meeting. Saeed said the players would then be expected to return to the squad.
In another development, HM Revenue and Customs said that two men and a woman, all from London, were arrested on Sunday and questioned as part of an investigation into money laundering before being released on bail.
‘Two of those arrested, a man and a woman, were 35-year-olds from the Croydon area while the third was a 49-year-old male from the Wembley area of London,’ The Guardian report said.
Meanwhile the PCB, the Pakistan high commission in London and the country’s sports ministry in Islamabad were holding a conference call to discuss how to deal with the issue.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is pressing for the three players to be excluded from Pakistan’s warm-up match in Taunton Thursday ahead of the forthcoming series of Twenty20 and one-day internationals, which begins Sunday in Cardiff.
‘It is believed that the International Cricket Council (ICC) has asked the PCB to omit the players from Thursday’s match,’ the report said.
The ICC is hopeful that by Sunday’s opening Twenty20 match its anti-corruption and security unit will have completed its report into the allegations that emerged from the newspaper’s sting operation.
‘The reputation of the game has been tarnished, and it is something we must make right,’ BBC quoted ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat as saying.
‘There is no question that people’s confidence will have been swayed. We’re busy with the Metropolitan police and hope before the weekend arrives we can get to some sort of a conclusion.’
‘We are working hard, but it’s important to remember that an individual is innocent until proven guilty. If any players are found to be guilty, the ICC will ensure that the appropriate punishment is handed out. I’m in touch with the investigators. It’s likely I might have to come across to London. But this is a live issue which moves with the hour, every hour,’ Lorgat added.
