ECB demand 'full and unreserved apology' from Ijaz Butt

1/2
10 April 2012

England's cricket bosses have written to Pakistan Board chairman Ijaz Butt to demand an apology for alleging the team had deliberately lost last friday's one-day international at The Brit Insurance Oval.

If Butt does not retract his comments that England players took money to let Pakistan win, the England and Wales Cricket Board will pursue legal action.

The ECB statement read: "The ECB and the Professional Cricketers' Association today confirmed that a pre-action letter has been sent on behalf of the England cricket team to Ijaz Butt.

"The letter seeks a full and unreserved apology. Mr Butt has been advised that if a satisfactory response is not received, legal proceedings will be commenced against him without further notice."

The ECB's move follows Shahid Afridi's incredible claim that Pakistan could return to England for a neutral series in the near future after their discredited tour finally came to an end last night.

After England's 121-run win at The Rose Bowl clinched a 3-2 victory in the NatWest Series, Pakistan were due to return home today under a huge cloud, following one of the most controversial English summers in living memory.

Three Pakistan players — Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir — were suspended by the International Cricket Council for alleged spot-fixing offences in last month's Lord's Test and last Friday's NatWest Series match at The Oval is also under investigation.

But captain Afridi — who was not involved in the scandal at Lord's as he quit Test cricket earlier in the summer but who has been a central figure in a bad-tempered series — appears to believe Pakistan still have a chance of being invited back after their Test and Twenty20 matches against Australia here in July.

"There is no cricket in Pakistan so we are ready to play anywhere," said Afridi. "I would love to come back. England is like a second home to me."

The bans inflicted for Butt, Asif and Amir, which they have appealed against, and the suspicion around The Oval match have left fans wondering what they can believe but Afridi insists the team he leads are honest.

"My guys are clean," said Afridi. "Any player who is not clean or who is guilty will be under pressure. If you look at our unit, we are positive and play hard cricket. I try to keep my boys from these issues and that is why we are improving day by day."

Afridi's English counterpart Andrew Strauss was hugely relieved that his side had managed to emerge from a nightmare series as winners at The Rose Bowl last night, claiming the deciding match after they had been pegged back to 2-2 after four games.

Strauss and his players could have been forgiven had they lost this series, so distracted have they been.

But they managed to get over the line thanks to a brilliant century from Eoin Morgan and some fine bowling from Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann, although some unusual scoring patterns in the Pakistan innings — they went into their shell after a flying start and collapsed from 63 without loss to 135 all out — would have troubled cynics and romantics alike.

It is to be hoped that their slow pace was due to nothing more sinister than good cricket from England.

Yet Strauss used the opportunity to call on the ICC once more to rid the game of corruption. The England captain said: "This summer has demonstrated that when there is a sniff of something in the air, it devalues the game and no one wants to play under those circumstances.

"We do not want to be doing that and nor should we be doing that. The ICC need to take a firm lead and leave no stone unturned and make sure that no game we play is tarnished.

"The ICC have to adopt a strong position and not just take a breather over the issue."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT