London,Sep 19 (IANS) South African cricketers Sunday expressed concerns on playing a tri-series in Abu Dhabi and Dubai against Pakistan, some of whose players are allegedly involved in a spot-fixing scandal.
The Proteas are scheduled to play three Test matches, five ODIs and two T20s against Pakistan in the Gulf. But several senior South African players may opt out of the tour.
‘To say we are reluctant is an understatement,’ one senior player was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.
‘Nobody knows what the hell is going on in the Pakistani cricket and we feel that playing such a high profile series right now is asking for trouble.’
‘Maybe it is time for the International Cricket Council (ICC) to step in, or for Pakistan to withdraw from the international game for a year until the mess can be cleaned up and people can start to believe in the game and develop a bit of trust,’ the player said.
South Africa Cricketers Association chief executive Tony Irish acknowledged that many players had expressed their concerns but said the tour will go on as of now.
‘The fact that there are now further incidents under investigation is not a good news. This all needs to be dealt with urgently in order to ensure that a heavy cloud of suspicion and doubt doesn’t hang over our series against Pakistan,’ Irish said.
On the senior players withdrawing from the series, Irish said: ‘Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.’
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) earlier made it clear that that England will not serve as neutral venue for a series involving Pakistan.
However, Zimbabwe is one country scheduled to tour Pakistan in January to raise money for flood relief. But after the controversy over the third One-dayer between England and Pakistan at the Oval Friday, the head of Zimbabwe Cricket is being forced to rethink about touring the sub-continental nation.
The ICC Saturday launched fresh investigations into reports that parts of Pakistan’s innings at the Oval were fixed and the bookies operating from Dubai and Delhi were aware of the details even before the match had begun.
This comes after the ICC suspended Pakistani cricketers Salman Butt, Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif on spot-fixing charges during the fourth Test at Lord’s.
–Indo–Asian News Service
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