London, Sep 3 (IANS) Pakistan’s High Commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan Friday attacked International Cricket Council (ICC) for suspending three Pakistani players even while the police investigation was going on in the spot-fixing scandal.
Hasan accused the ICC of ‘playing to the public gallery’, and said the council had ‘no business’ taking action while the investigations were on.
‘They (the ICC) have done the wrong thing. When there’s a live police inquiry, this takes precedence over both the ICC, civil or regulatory investigations and any disciplinary investigations,’ Hasan was quoted as saying by Radio 4’s Today programme.
‘To take action now is unhelpful, premature and unnecessary considering the players had already voluntarily withdrawn from playing. The ICC had no business to take this action. The ICC is just playing to the public gallery.’
Hasan said that he had spoken to the three cricketers and had concluded that they were innocent.
Hasan’s attack come after Test captain Salman Butt and bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer were charged by the ICC late Thursday night with multiple breaches of the ICC’s anti-corruption rules and were suspended from all forms of the game with immediate effect.
The three cricketers also became the first players to be suspended under new ICC rules intended to protect the integrity of the game.
ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat warned that the players can face life bans if they are proved guilty.
They could face even stiffer action as the result of the ongoing criminal inquiry, which will accelerate when the trio will be interviewed under caution by detectives from Scotland Yard.
On Thursday they protested their innocence for the first time since the scandal broke, but are currently being viewed as suspects in the alleged conspiracy. They are not expected to be arrested however, and have agreed to voluntarily attend the interviews with Scotland Yard investigators.
It was reported on Thursday night that marked bank notes were allegedly discovered in police searches of Butt’s hotel room and his locker at Lord’s cricket ground.
The ICC initially said it would not act until the police had interviewed the three players. But the decision to charge and suspend the players came after its Anti-Corruption Unit’s chief operating office Ravi Sawani held talks with officers from the Metropolitan Police Economic Crime Unit.
