The ICC and the Metropolitan police in London thoroughly investigated the alleged involvement of several Pakistani players in spot fixing during last year's tour of England before clearing them to play for their national team.
Published: Oct 12, 2011, 01:16 PM (IST)
Edited: Oct 12, 2011, 01:16 PM (IST)
Four Pakistan players – Kamran Akmal, Wahab Riaz, Imran Farhat and Umar Akmal were investigated in detail last year when their names were first taken by Mazhar Majeed © Getty Images
Karachi: Oct 12, 2011
The ICC and the Metropolitan police in London thoroughly investigated the alleged involvement of several Pakistani players in spot fixing during last year’s tour of England before clearing them to play for their national team.
A Pakistan cricket Board official said today that players including Wahab Riaz and Kamran Akmal were only cleared to play for Pakistan after the ICC told the PCB it had no objection to them playing for Pakistan.
During proceedings of the spot-fixing trial going on at the Southwark London court against Pakistani players, Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamir and their Pakistani but London based agent Mazhar Majeed, the court has been told about how some other Pakistani players were also allegedly working for Majeed in the spot fixing racket.
In audio tapes played at the court, Majeed told undercover journalist Mazhar Mahmood about how he had several Pakistani players in his pocket besides Butt, Aamir and Asif and went on to name Wahab, Kamran, Umar Akmal, Imran Farhat etc in this regard.
While Butt, Aamir and Asif were banned by the ICC for their involvement in spot-fixing, the other players went on to play for Pakistan at different times and Wahab and Farhat are still members of the squad announced for the Test series against Sri Lanka in the UAE.
But the PCB official said the four players were investigated in detail last year when their names were first taken by Majeed.
“The ICC and even the metropolitan police investigated the claims by Majeed as they were given recordings of the audio and video conversations recorded by Mazhar Mahmood and they did a thorough investigation and found nothing implicating these players in any wrong doing,” the official said. (PTI)
