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England board to discuss corruption probe

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) will meet on Saturday to discuss an ICC investigation into possible corruption during Friday’s one-day international against Pakistan at the Oval.

The International Cricket Council said on Saturday it is investigating the match after receiving information from a British newspaper alleging a suspicious scoring pattern in Pakistan’s innings. Pakistan won the third game of the five-match series by 23 runs.

‘The ECB is seeking clarification and details from the ICC and the ECB board will meet later today to discuss the matter,’ the board said in a statement on Saturday.

Earlier ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said the investigation followed a report in the Sun newspaper which said bookmakers knew details of Pakistan’s innings before the match began.

‘A source informed The Sun newspaper that a certain scoring pattern would emerge during certain stages of the match and, broadly speaking, that information appeared to be correct,’ Lorgat said in a statement.

‘We therefore feel it is incumbent upon us to launch a full enquiry into this particular game although it is worth pointing out at this stage that we are not stating as fact that anything untoward has occurred.

‘The ICC maintains a zero-tolerance approach to corruption. Any player or official found guilty of an offence will face the full rigour of our robust Anti-Corruption Code so that we can ensure the integrity of the sport is maintained.’

PAKISTAN TRIO SUSPENDED

Pakistan test captain Salman Butt and opening bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir have returned home after they were provisionally suspended by the ICC following newspaper reports of premeditated no-balls in the fourth test against England at Lord’s last month.

British police, who are also investigating the spot-fixing allegations, questioned a fourth player, Wahab Riaz, last week.

Pakistan Sports Minister Aijaz Jakhrani said the government would not take action unless there was clear evidence against a player.

‘The ICC has the power and an anti-corruption unit and they should go ahead and use that,’ Jakhrani told the Indian news channel CNN-IBN. ‘If they get any proof then we will definitely look into it.’

He added that if the government had cracked down on corruption in the past the recent scandals would not have happened.

‘If we had made some harsh decisions in the past it would not have happened. If we had taken some harsh decisions young players would not dare to do something wrong,’ he added.

‘This is the time when we have to take some tough decisions. This time we will not spare anybody.’

Jakhrani said he was also unhappy with the role of team management and felt they were not strict enough.

‘This is the thing management has to do. Access to players should not be easy and mobile phones should not be available to the players when they are playing.’