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Pakistan cricket team manager quits in wake of match-fixing allegations
The manager of the Pakistan cricket team has quit in the wake of match-fixing allegations that have rocked the cricketing world.
Yawar Saeed's resignation comes after Englands relationship with Pakistan deteriorated further yesterday when Jonathan Trott grabbed Wahab Riaz by the throat at Lords.
It also follows after Andrew Strauss had to be talked out of leading his players in a strike ahead of the fourth NatWest one-day international when Trott and Riaz clashed in the nets and had to be separated by England batting coach Graham Gooch.
The match-fixing scandal has led to the suspension of three Pakistan cricketers including Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamir who face allegations of spot-fixing which has prompted Scotland Yard to launch an investigation.
The altercation between Trott and Saeed followed the ECBs controversial decision to complete a tour that had lost all credibility after accusations of more corruption, culminating in Pakistan Cricket Board chief Ijaz Butts claim that England had thrown the third one-day game at The Oval.
Butts inflammatory remarks enraged the England players so much that they held crisis talks into the early hours of yesterday before finally agreeing to play on through gritted teeth.
Saeed, meanwhile, is understood to have said that he wanted to step down from his position after the current tour had ended as he wanted a new challenge after serving the Pakistan team for 26 years,
He was originally set to resign after the ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa in 2010 but continued to serve as manager for the series against England which is drawn at 2-2. The final One Day International match will be held on Wednesday.
In extraordinary scenes yesterday, Jonathan Trott and Wahab Riaz had to be forcibly separated after a furious confrontation in the practice nets before the start of the latest one-day game which Pakistan won by 38 runs.
Batsman Trott apparently asked the passing Pakistan fast bowler, who has been questioned by detectives probing the ill-fated series: 'How much are you going to make from the bookies on this game?'
The two men traded insults, then threw cricket pads at one another, before the clash turned physical. Former England star Graham Gooch, now the team's batting coach, had to step in and separate the two players.
Both were hauled before the match referee Jeff Crowe, given a ticking-off and warned about their future conduct.
The unsavoury flare-up at the home of cricket briefly threatened to delay the start of yesterday's game, already in peril after Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt's incendiary comments that England players took bribes to throw a match last week.
His claim that he was aware of bookmaker information that England's cricketers had 'taken enormous amounts of money' to fix last Friday's one-day international at The Oval incensed the team.
And it led to former captain Sir Ian Botham declaring Pakistan should be banned from world cricket until allegations about their match-fixing are fully investigated.
He said: 'We keep sweeping things under the carpet - enough is enough. The public pay the money to come and watch the game, what do they do if a catch goes down or someone bowls a no-ball, what are they thinking? Enough is enough.'
However, there are fears that if Pakistan are banned, the country will be further isolated from the international community which could play into the hands of extremists.
Furious England stars deliberated into the small hours yesterday before finally agreeing to play but captain Andrew Strauss threatened to sue over claims that his team threw the match.
He admitted the England team had strong 'misgivings' about whether to play but decided to take the field for 'the cricket-loving public'.
He said players will 'explore all legal options' before expressing his team's 'surprise, anger and outrage' at Mr Butt's comments.
The confrontation between Trott and Riaz came three weeks after the cricket scandal surrounding the Pakistan side exploded when their Test captain Salman Butt and bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer were alleged to have taken part in a plot to defraud illegal bookmakers by bowling no-balls to order.
They were interviewed by Scotland Yard and charged and suspended under the International Cricket Council's anti-corruption code. Last week Wahab Riaz became the fourth Pakistan player to be questioned.
Ijaz Butt's remarks followed the ICC announcement on Saturday that it will investigate 'a certain scoring pattern' after being tipped-off that bookmakers knew details of the Pakistan innings before Friday's match at The Oval.
Butt talked of a 'conspiracy' against Pakistan and said in a TV interview: 'There is loud and clear talk in bookie circles that some English players have taken enormous amounts of money to lose the match.'
He later said he was only repeating what he had heard.
The comments infuriated Botham, who told Sky Sports News: 'I would like to know how Ijaz Butt knows what the bookmakers are doing. Maybe he should tell us something.
'It's appalling, it's farcical and it's gone on for too long now. It needs to be stamped out. If you have a cancerous problem you get to the root of it.
'If it means giving guys amnesty, saying "come clean, guys, tell us what happened, then we'll move on", whether they have to serve a ban - that's for the ICC.
'The ICC need to wake up, they need to get off their backsides. From what I can see they haven't done very much at all.'
Fellow former captain Nasser Hussain, writing in today's Daily Mail, also said a temporary ban on Pakistan may have to be considered.
'There may come a point sometime soon when temporarily removing Pakistan from world cricket may be the only way to preserve the games' dignity...' he said.
'I've generally agreed with Imran Khan on this - You can't kick out a team just because of two or three bad apples.
'But we're seeing now what happens when accusations are bandied around with no thought for their consequences.'
Hussain says that unlike Strauss he might have said 'enough is enough' and refused to play the final two matches of the series.
'If you're accusing my team of deliberately losing a match, then you don't deserve to be on the same field,' he wrote.
He urged the ICC to be decisive to avoid the situation escalating even further.
Pakistan High Commissioner Wajid Hasan today insisted relations between the two countries will not be damaged by the cricket row.
But he risked inflaming the situation further by saying Mr Butt had made a 'very innocent argument' about the England players.
He told the BBC: 'Mr Butt made a very innocent argument. He said that it's very strange that, when Pakistan loses a match, people describe it as a spot-fixing or fixing of the match.
'When Pakistan win the match, the same allegations are levelled against it. While he was in India the bookies told him the matches are fixed in England. It's the responsibility of the ICC (International Cricket Council) to investigate allegations. This was an allegation made by a member of the ICC's board.'
But he went on: 'Will this row sour our relationship? My answer is certainly no. This is a separate matter. Our relationship with the UK was not made overnight. It has its roots in the past. It is on solid ground.'
Of the claims against Pakistani players, he added: 'I can tell you our boys are innocent. I still maintain (that) until proven guilty, they are innocent.'
Sports Minister Hugh Robertson told Today he could understand the England players' reaction: 'I can absolutely understand the emotion involved in all of this. They have had their integrity questioned in the most fundamental way.'
He declined to call for Pakistan to be thrown out of world cricket, saying: 'In terms of the wider British-Pakistan relationship, if we were seen to be playing a part in throwing them out of world cricket, that would have very serious consequences across the piece.'
Read more: Pakistan cricket manager Yawar Saeed quits in wake of match-fixing allegations | Mail Online
The manager of the Pakistan cricket team has quit in the wake of match-fixing allegations that have rocked the cricketing world.
Yawar Saeed's resignation comes after Englands relationship with Pakistan deteriorated further yesterday when Jonathan Trott grabbed Wahab Riaz by the throat at Lords.
It also follows after Andrew Strauss had to be talked out of leading his players in a strike ahead of the fourth NatWest one-day international when Trott and Riaz clashed in the nets and had to be separated by England batting coach Graham Gooch.
The match-fixing scandal has led to the suspension of three Pakistan cricketers including Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamir who face allegations of spot-fixing which has prompted Scotland Yard to launch an investigation.
The altercation between Trott and Saeed followed the ECBs controversial decision to complete a tour that had lost all credibility after accusations of more corruption, culminating in Pakistan Cricket Board chief Ijaz Butts claim that England had thrown the third one-day game at The Oval.
Butts inflammatory remarks enraged the England players so much that they held crisis talks into the early hours of yesterday before finally agreeing to play on through gritted teeth.
Saeed, meanwhile, is understood to have said that he wanted to step down from his position after the current tour had ended as he wanted a new challenge after serving the Pakistan team for 26 years,
He was originally set to resign after the ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa in 2010 but continued to serve as manager for the series against England which is drawn at 2-2. The final One Day International match will be held on Wednesday.
In extraordinary scenes yesterday, Jonathan Trott and Wahab Riaz had to be forcibly separated after a furious confrontation in the practice nets before the start of the latest one-day game which Pakistan won by 38 runs.
Batsman Trott apparently asked the passing Pakistan fast bowler, who has been questioned by detectives probing the ill-fated series: 'How much are you going to make from the bookies on this game?'
The two men traded insults, then threw cricket pads at one another, before the clash turned physical. Former England star Graham Gooch, now the team's batting coach, had to step in and separate the two players.
Both were hauled before the match referee Jeff Crowe, given a ticking-off and warned about their future conduct.
The unsavoury flare-up at the home of cricket briefly threatened to delay the start of yesterday's game, already in peril after Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt's incendiary comments that England players took bribes to throw a match last week.
His claim that he was aware of bookmaker information that England's cricketers had 'taken enormous amounts of money' to fix last Friday's one-day international at The Oval incensed the team.
And it led to former captain Sir Ian Botham declaring Pakistan should be banned from world cricket until allegations about their match-fixing are fully investigated.
He said: 'We keep sweeping things under the carpet - enough is enough. The public pay the money to come and watch the game, what do they do if a catch goes down or someone bowls a no-ball, what are they thinking? Enough is enough.'
However, there are fears that if Pakistan are banned, the country will be further isolated from the international community which could play into the hands of extremists.
Furious England stars deliberated into the small hours yesterday before finally agreeing to play but captain Andrew Strauss threatened to sue over claims that his team threw the match.
He admitted the England team had strong 'misgivings' about whether to play but decided to take the field for 'the cricket-loving public'.
He said players will 'explore all legal options' before expressing his team's 'surprise, anger and outrage' at Mr Butt's comments.
The confrontation between Trott and Riaz came three weeks after the cricket scandal surrounding the Pakistan side exploded when their Test captain Salman Butt and bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer were alleged to have taken part in a plot to defraud illegal bookmakers by bowling no-balls to order.
They were interviewed by Scotland Yard and charged and suspended under the International Cricket Council's anti-corruption code. Last week Wahab Riaz became the fourth Pakistan player to be questioned.
Ijaz Butt's remarks followed the ICC announcement on Saturday that it will investigate 'a certain scoring pattern' after being tipped-off that bookmakers knew details of the Pakistan innings before Friday's match at The Oval.
Butt talked of a 'conspiracy' against Pakistan and said in a TV interview: 'There is loud and clear talk in bookie circles that some English players have taken enormous amounts of money to lose the match.'
He later said he was only repeating what he had heard.
The comments infuriated Botham, who told Sky Sports News: 'I would like to know how Ijaz Butt knows what the bookmakers are doing. Maybe he should tell us something.
'It's appalling, it's farcical and it's gone on for too long now. It needs to be stamped out. If you have a cancerous problem you get to the root of it.
'If it means giving guys amnesty, saying "come clean, guys, tell us what happened, then we'll move on", whether they have to serve a ban - that's for the ICC.
'The ICC need to wake up, they need to get off their backsides. From what I can see they haven't done very much at all.'
Fellow former captain Nasser Hussain, writing in today's Daily Mail, also said a temporary ban on Pakistan may have to be considered.
'There may come a point sometime soon when temporarily removing Pakistan from world cricket may be the only way to preserve the games' dignity...' he said.
'I've generally agreed with Imran Khan on this - You can't kick out a team just because of two or three bad apples.
'But we're seeing now what happens when accusations are bandied around with no thought for their consequences.'
Hussain says that unlike Strauss he might have said 'enough is enough' and refused to play the final two matches of the series.
'If you're accusing my team of deliberately losing a match, then you don't deserve to be on the same field,' he wrote.
He urged the ICC to be decisive to avoid the situation escalating even further.
Pakistan High Commissioner Wajid Hasan today insisted relations between the two countries will not be damaged by the cricket row.
But he risked inflaming the situation further by saying Mr Butt had made a 'very innocent argument' about the England players.
He told the BBC: 'Mr Butt made a very innocent argument. He said that it's very strange that, when Pakistan loses a match, people describe it as a spot-fixing or fixing of the match.
'When Pakistan win the match, the same allegations are levelled against it. While he was in India the bookies told him the matches are fixed in England. It's the responsibility of the ICC (International Cricket Council) to investigate allegations. This was an allegation made by a member of the ICC's board.'
But he went on: 'Will this row sour our relationship? My answer is certainly no. This is a separate matter. Our relationship with the UK was not made overnight. It has its roots in the past. It is on solid ground.'
Of the claims against Pakistani players, he added: 'I can tell you our boys are innocent. I still maintain (that) until proven guilty, they are innocent.'
Sports Minister Hugh Robertson told Today he could understand the England players' reaction: 'I can absolutely understand the emotion involved in all of this. They have had their integrity questioned in the most fundamental way.'
He declined to call for Pakistan to be thrown out of world cricket, saying: 'In terms of the wider British-Pakistan relationship, if we were seen to be playing a part in throwing them out of world cricket, that would have very serious consequences across the piece.'
Read more: Pakistan cricket manager Yawar Saeed quits in wake of match-fixing allegations | Mail Online
