Pakistan : Terrorist Wahabi Islamic Rep Pakistan 6

[Naresh]

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[color="#FF0000"][size="5"]Spot-fixing controversy[/size][/color]



[url="http://www.cricinfo.com/england-v-pakistan-2010/content/current/story/475559.html"][center][size="6"][color="#006400"]Butt, Asif and Amir dropped for rest of tour[/color][/size][/center][/url]



Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, [color="#FF0000"]the three Pakistan players at the centre of the spot-fixing controversy, have been dropped for the limited-overs leg of the England tour,[/color] according to team manager Yawar Saeed. He said they had not, however, been suspended.



The three players are currently in London, where they are meeting Pakistan's high commissioner to the UK and PCB chairman Ijaz Butt. The players, who arrived at the high commission in a car with blacked-out windows, were escorted by 10 police officers past a media scrum, involving up to 20 photographers and reporters, as they entered the building.



Speaking in Taunton, where the Pakistan team are to play a warm-up match later on Thursday, Saeed said he had taken the decision, and also called for three replacements. "The T20 squad will remain what it is here this morning, i.e. 13 people," Saeed said. "When we play the one-day internationals we will be asking for replacements to make the squad up to 16."



The decision comes after several rounds of meetings between Ijaz Butt, ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat and officials of the ECB, at which the PCB is believed to have been advised that the players should not take part in the rest of the tour.



The ECB estimates that an income of approximately £10 million hinges on the successful staging of this series and its chairman Giles Clarke said "he welcomed the decision". He said he looked forward to the series being playing "in the spirit" that matches between England and Pakistan are always played in.



Alan Hamer, the chief executive of Glamorgan, welcomed the news of the trio's omission ahead of the county's hosting of the two Twenty20 matches on Sunday and Tuesday.



"This is definitely the right decision going forward into the series," Hamer told Cricinfo. "The week leading up to the matches has felt like a department store in the lead-up to Christmas, with no-one coming through the doors. It has been clear from our initial market research that many people have been waiting for clarity on the allegations before committing to buying tickets, so hopefully with this decision, the emphasis will now shift back to the cricket, and a contest between the past and present World Twenty20 champions."



Cheers