PCB launch clean-up drive

According to Sky News this is a separate,criminal investigation into allegations around cricket match fixing. Mazhar Majeed was re-arrested by the customs service as part of a connected investigation into money laundering. He was released only today, the report said.

The inquiry is quite separate to the Scotland Yard investigation into defrauding bookmakers but is part of the bigger area of match fixing claims made against members of the Pakistan team, the Sky News said.

On a day of swift developments,the players were barred from team practice in Taunton amidst intense speculation that they could be suspended by the PCB under pressure from their British counterparts.

Pakistan team manager Yawar Saeed said that the three players did not have nets with the rest of the team because they were preparing for a meeting at the Pakistan High Commission in London on Wednesday. They will face PCBs internal inquiry committee, manager Yawar Saeed said. The decision to not allow the three players to practice with the team came after a meeting held between one-day captain Shahid Afridi,Yawar,coach Waqar Younis and the PCB chairman. The team plays a practice match on Wednesday.

No suspensions: PCB

A PCB spokesman meanwhile said that no player would be suspended until a final inquiry report into the charges against them was delivered to the board by Thursday. The spokesman declined to comment when asked if the accused players would be considered for the first T20 International on Sunday if the report didnt come in by that time.

There was more trouble for the Pakistan team with another report claiming that Scotland Yard investigators last weekend recovered cash worth 50,000 pounds in captain Butts hotel room at the Marriott at Swiss Cottage in London.

Of this money,21,000 were in South African Rands and UAE Dirhams while the remaining were in pounds. When asked about the cash,Butt had reportedly told the investigators that it had been collected for his sisters trousseau.

Sources in the team are now saying that Test captain Butt was responsible for the clout that bookie and player agent Mazhar Majeed enjoyed in the team. Asif had also reportedly told the investigators that it was Butt who had introduced Majeed to the players.

As reactions poured in,ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat said the world body was expecting that the investigation would be over by the weekend. Were busy with the Metropolitan Police and hopefully before the weekend arrives we can get to some sort of a conclusion,but this is a live issue which moves with the hour,every hour and its an individuals right that youre innocent until proven guilty, he said.

A three-member team from the Federal Investigation Agency FIA in Pakistan arrived here to join hands with Scotland Yard in probing allegations. This,however,is contrary to what Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik said in Karachi that the FIA team will be sent only after receiving a report of British authorities probing the allegations.

According to a report in the The Times,federal agents,working with PCB chief Ijaz Butt and High Commissioner for Pakistan to London Wajid Shamsul Hasan,had taken control of the situation from the team management.

ACSU had warned us: Hair

Meanwhile,former Test umpire Darrell Hair was not surprised by the recent match-fixing scandal as he claimed that ICCs Anti-Corruption and Security Unit ACSU had issued a warning a decade ago mentioning the possibilities of Pakistan bowling deliberate no-balls in matches. It didnt shock me at all, Hair said.

When the ICCs Anti-Corruption Unit was formed they spoke to all the leading umpires and said there were concerns in tournaments in places like Sharjah that the Pakistanis were bowling deliberate no balls and wides. They also mentioned the possibility of strange dismissals, he said.

Hair,however,said that ACSU could not come out with any specific evidence that time. But they have not been able to get any proof, he said.