Pakistan match-fixing claims: fourth member of squad 'investigated' by ICC

A fourth member of the Pakistan squad is being investigated by the International Cricket Council over match-fixing allegations, it is claimed in Sunday's News of the World.

By Nicholas Randall
Published: 9:43PM BST 04 Sep 2010


Eye of the storm: Pakistan Test captain Salman Butt, centre, who faces match-fixing allegations, leaves a police station in London Photo: AP And in a potential further blow to the country’s cricketing reputation, Pakistan Test opener Yasir Hameed is quoted in the paper as claiming that his team-mates have been involved in trying to rig “almost every match”.

However, Hameed on Saturday night denied that he had given an interview to the News of the World.


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Pietersen returns to form According to the paper, Hameed, who played in the Test series against England but is not in Pakistan’s limited-overs squad, said: “They’ve been caught. Only the ones that get caught are branded crooks.

“They were doing it [fixing] in almost every match. God knows what they were up to. Scotland Yard was after them for ages.

“It makes me angry because I’m playing my best and they are trying to lose.”

The paper, which on Sunday prints full details of an investigation into fixing that began in January, last week accused Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Amir and Salman Butt of spot-fixing in last month’s Lord’s Test between England and Pakistan. However, for legal reasons the paper is not naming the fourth player being investigated by the ICC.

The Metropolitan Police, which has questioned Asif, Amir and Butt, said it was not investigating a fourth player.

Separately, it has been reported that Pakistan wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal has been asked by the ICC to provide information, although not in relation to the recent Lord’s Test.

Asif, Amir and Butt, who were last week suspended by cricket’s world governing body, face 23 ICC charges between them with each player's charges running to six pages, the News of the World claims.

The ICC was on Saturday night unable to confirm or deny the latest report. “We cannot discuss ongoing investigations,” a spokesman said.

According to the paper, investigators have recovered between £10,000 and £15,000 in marked News of the World notes from the hotel room of Butt, the Pakistan captain.

The paper also claims it has further evidence that the meeting with alleged fixer Mazhar Majeed took place before the no-balls at the centre of the fixing allegations — two delivered by Amir in the Lord’s Test and one by Asif — had been bowled. The claim follows suggestions from the Pakistan High Commissioner that the players had been set up.