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.jpg "Graeme Swann of England fails to get bat on ball during the 4th NatWest One Day International between England and Pakistan at Lord's on September 20, in London, England. (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images )")
The shadow of match-fixing once again threatened to eclipse the much-troubled match series between the cricket-loving nations of England and Pakistan.
The English cricket team agreed only at the 11th hour to go ahead with the latest match in London on Monday after the Pakistani cricket chairman accused them on the previous day of deliberately throwing the last match.
The English team said that they were outraged by comments made by the chairman of the Pakistani Cricket Board, Ijaz Butt, who claimed bookmakers were saying that England’s team had accepted large sums of money in exchange for losing.
Butt told India’s NDTV, “There is loud and clear talk in the bookie’s circle that some English players were paid enormous amounts of money to lose the match. No wonder there was total collapse of the English side.”
“We won the match and we are under suspicion. England lost. Their players should be investigated,” said Ijaz Butt. “You don’t lose a match if you are fixing a game. We have cooperated so far with all this investigation but after the third ODI we get this feeling it is not a conspiracy to defraud bookies but to defraud Pakistani cricket.”
His comments came just 24-hours ahead of the next match on Monday, prompting widespread speculation that the match would be canceled. England’s team and the English Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed just one hour ahead of the match that it would go ahead, with England’s captain admitting that the team had “strong misgivings” about playing the last two games.
The ECB has indicated they may take legal action over Butt’s comments.
A match of this sort would usually be a sellout, but 5,000 of the 28,000 seats stood empty at Lord’s Cricket ground in London on Monday—testament to the effect the scandal has had on the reputation of the game and the series.
These latest allegations are just the last in a series of scandals that have dogged Pakistan’s two-month-long tour of matches in England.
Cricket is the most popular sport in Pakistan, which is itself a well-respected cricketing nation. The allegations against its team have shaken the world of cricket—once synonymous with the English sense of fair play and known as the “gentlemen’s” game.
This episode started with “spot-fixing” allegations against three Pakistani players, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif, and Salman Butt. They were questioned by police following a newspaper investigation, which alleged they were deliberately throwing plays in the fourth Test against England last month in exchange for cash.
The allegations dominated the news in England for several days. A later investigation by the same newspaper, the News of the World, set out allegations of the whole match-fixing.
When the match-play resumed last week, it seemed the scandal had died down. Then, a Sun newspaper investigation claimed that overseas bookmakers knew the details of Pakistan’s innings before the match on Friday had begun. The claim is being looked into by the International Cricket Council.
The English cricket team agreed only at the 11th hour to go ahead with the latest match in London on Monday after the Pakistani cricket chairman accused them on the previous day of deliberately throwing the last match.
The English team said that they were outraged by comments made by the chairman of the Pakistani Cricket Board, Ijaz Butt, who claimed bookmakers were saying that England’s team had accepted large sums of money in exchange for losing.
Butt told India’s NDTV, “There is loud and clear talk in the bookie’s circle that some English players were paid enormous amounts of money to lose the match. No wonder there was total collapse of the English side.”
“We won the match and we are under suspicion. England lost. Their players should be investigated,” said Ijaz Butt. “You don’t lose a match if you are fixing a game. We have cooperated so far with all this investigation but after the third ODI we get this feeling it is not a conspiracy to defraud bookies but to defraud Pakistani cricket.”
His comments came just 24-hours ahead of the next match on Monday, prompting widespread speculation that the match would be canceled. England’s team and the English Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed just one hour ahead of the match that it would go ahead, with England’s captain admitting that the team had “strong misgivings” about playing the last two games.
The ECB has indicated they may take legal action over Butt’s comments.
A match of this sort would usually be a sellout, but 5,000 of the 28,000 seats stood empty at Lord’s Cricket ground in London on Monday—testament to the effect the scandal has had on the reputation of the game and the series.
These latest allegations are just the last in a series of scandals that have dogged Pakistan’s two-month-long tour of matches in England.
Cricket is the most popular sport in Pakistan, which is itself a well-respected cricketing nation. The allegations against its team have shaken the world of cricket—once synonymous with the English sense of fair play and known as the “gentlemen’s” game.
This episode started with “spot-fixing” allegations against three Pakistani players, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif, and Salman Butt. They were questioned by police following a newspaper investigation, which alleged they were deliberately throwing plays in the fourth Test against England last month in exchange for cash.
The allegations dominated the news in England for several days. A later investigation by the same newspaper, the News of the World, set out allegations of the whole match-fixing.
When the match-play resumed last week, it seemed the scandal had died down. Then, a Sun newspaper investigation claimed that overseas bookmakers knew the details of Pakistan’s innings before the match on Friday had begun. The claim is being looked into by the International Cricket Council.
