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International Cricket

The PCB has made it clear that if the tainted players are found innocent, it may resort legal action against ICC.

The PCB's senior legal advisor Talib Rizvi said that if the players were eventually found innocent, then the PCB would consider taking legal action against the ICC and other bodies involved in making the allegations and conducting the inquiry against the players.

"I just want to be clear the PCB will consider legal action against the ICC and other bodies if our players are found innocent because we feel the ICC has bypassed some of its own procedures in suspending the players and overall in this case," Rizvi said.

He also emphasised that at the moment there was no criminal investigation going on against the three players.

"It is just a preliminary inquiry and nothing more. They are being questioned. No investigations have been held," he added.

Rizvi, who also represented the PCB in the appellate tribunal during the hearing of the appeals of players against their bans and fines this year, claimed that so far the ICC had not shown any evidence against the three players.

"Even at the press conference the ICC and ACSU were asked about the evidence or charges against our players but they gave no details. So we want to know the reasons for suspending the players."

Talib's son, Tafazzul Rizvi is also in London as the board's legal advisor and is closely involved in the ongoing inquiry by the Scotland Yard.

He accompanied the three players to the Kilburn police station where they were summoned for detailed questioning.

Sources close to the PCB said that until now even Tafazzul Rizvi had not been given any concrete evidence on basis of which the ICC decided to suspend Butt, Asif and Aamir.

Talib said it was too early to say when the inquiry would end or when Scotland Yard would give a detailed report.

"We just feel that the suspension of our players is a bit harsh in the circumstances," he added.

Pak HC in Britain shouldn't comment on 'spot-fixing': Latif

Pakistan's High Commissioner in Britain Wajib Shamsul Hasan should not comment on the 'spot-fixing' scandal involving three players of the country as his outbursts against the ICC could land the PCB in trouble, fears former Test captain Rashid Latif.

The former wicketkeeper-batsman also advised the PCB to not adopt a confrontational attitude towards the ICC over allegations of 'spot-fixing' against the suspended trio of Test captain Salman Butt and pacers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamir.

"I don't think Wajid Shamsul Hasan should be making comments on purely cricket matters or even on legal matters involving the players and ICC. This is something only the PCB should be talking about," Latif said.

"He is a political man but in international cricket things work differently and the PCB should be the sole authority giving statements in this issue."

Latif felt the diplomat had misguided the Pakistani people and cricket fans with his comments that the scandal was a conspiracy to alienate the country.

The former captain, who played a key role in exposing the nexus between players and bookmakers in the 90s, said the PCB should have handled the issue differently.

"When it first broke out it was not such a serious issue and the matter could have been handled and resolved between the ICC and PCB without damaging the image of Pakistan cricket," Latif said.

"I blame the PCB for not reading the situation and not handling the issue particularly well. The board should have read the writing on the wall where the issue was now headed and how the media would react."

Latif also refused to condemn the players suspended on allegations of spot fixing.

"I don't want to be judgmental because until now there are only allegations against them and from experience I know that it is very difficult to prove instances of fixing anywhere in the world. It is a fact that players have links with bookmakers and fixers but throughout the world cricket," he said.

Latif said by suspending the players, the onus was now on the ICC to prove the allegations had any substance.

"It is rather sad that whenever we go to England such controversies crop up. I think the PCB needs to do a lot of rethinking on how it is handling different issues and specially team matters. I don't singularly blame Ijaz Butt for all problems as he has an entire set up working with him and they are equally responsible for any mess," Latif said.

Pak diplomats embarrassed by 'loose cannon' Hasan

The high commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan has been branded a "loose cannon" by the diplomats of his own country for his outbursts against the International Cricket Council in the 'spot-fixing' scandal.

Hasan has claimed that the suspended trio of Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamir, who allegedly took money from a bookie to bowl no balls during the Lord's Test against England, have been framed and the entire scandal is a conspiracy to alienate Pakistan cricket.

Hasan has also insinuated that the ICC's Indian President Sharad Pawar may have had a hand in getting the three players suspended.

But diplomats at the Pakistani legation in Belgravia are less then amused by his stunning remarks with one of them saying that he felt "depressed" by Hasan's statements to the media.

"I suppose it is quite funny for outsiders, but the rest of us find it embarrassing. Anyway, it'll backfire, I have my own contacts among journalists and I am told they (the News of the World) will produce more things on Sunday," a diplomat was quoted as saying by 'The Independent'.

The unnamed diplomat said Hasan's claims have not just caused embarrassment; they have created a sense of anger against Pakistan.

"We had a great chance here to show that we were taking this matter extremely seriously and would root out any corruption. Instead we took a position we couldn't sustain, ended giving contradictory statements, lost out anyway and made a lot of our friends in the cricketing world angry."

"We are trying to get him off the TV screens, but there's no stopping him."

Officials close to Hasan said the criticism has come from "his detractors connected to the Pakistani secret service, the ISI, and the military."

But a diplomat rejected this saying, "What on earth has all this to do with cricket? The only military thing here is that we have a loose cannon in our hands.

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