Pakistan's Match-Fixing Row Players Dropped From Tour

The three Pakistan cricketers at the centre of a match-fixing row have been dropped from the rest of the team's England tour, according to reports.

Although the players have not been suspended, manager Yawar Saeed told reporters that he decided to leave them out of the squad.

However, on Thursday afternoon, Pakistan high commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan told reporters that the players and voluntarily withdrawn from the team, so that they could defend their innocence.

Test captain Salman Butt and fast bowlers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif have been accused of involvement in spot-betting, following a report in Sunday's News of the World.

The report claimed that the two bowlers had agree to bowl no balls - foul deliveries - during the fourth Test against England at Lord's last week. A reporter from the newspaper had posed as a businessman who paid £150,000 for the information.

The players are currently in London, where they will be questioned as part of an inquiry into the allegations by the Pakistan Cricket Board, while their colleagues play a one-day warm-up game against Somerset in Taunton, ahead of their Twenty20 matches against England, which begin on Sunday.

The International Cricket Council and the police are also investigating the allegations. Police questioned the three players, along with wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal, but he is no longer part of the investigation.

Cricket agent Mazhar Majeed was arrested on Saturday in connection with the case, as part of a HM Revenue & Customs investigation in money-laundering , but has been released on bail.

A woman aged 35 from Croydon, and a 49-year-old man from the Wembley area were also arrested in the same investigation, but have also been released on bail.

(KMcA/GK)