LONDON, (Reuters) – The meeting between the three Pakistan players at the centre of spot-fixing allegations and the country’s High Commissioner has been postponed until today, officials said yesterday.
Test captain Salman Butt and bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir have left their team mates in Taunton, where Pakistan were preparing for today’s one-day match against Somerset, to travel to London for the meeting that will now take place today, Pakistan team manager Yawar Saeed told journalists.
Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt will also attend the meeting to discuss the newspaper allegations that players had been bribed to bowl deliberate no-balls in the fourth test against England which finished at Lord’s on Sunday.
The three players should be free to rejoin the squad tomorrow, two days before the tourists’ first Twenty20 game against England. There is another Twenty20 scheduled, as well as five one-day internationals.
On Tuesday, the PCB announced they would hold an internal investigation into the allegations while the Lahore High Court has summoned the PCB chairman, the federal sports minister and seven players to hear a petition calling for the players to be charged with treason.
British police and customs officials are also investigating.
The fallout from the scandal looks set to hit the players in the pocket too as BoomBoom, the official kit supplier to the Pakistan cricket team, suspended its commercial relationship with teenage fast bowler Amir yesterday.
BoomBoom managing director Ali Ehsan said in a statement that the company was also reviewing its position as the official supplier to the PCB.
Ehsan said the decision to suspend the relationship with Amir did not imply any judgment on the allegations.
“We cannot allow our brand to be associated with any whiff of corruption or suspicion of foul play,” he said.
“While the suspension of our commercial involvement with Mohammad Amir is not a step we take lightly, we nevertheless feel that it is the right thing to do while a judicial process unfolds and innocence or guilt is established.”
Fellow bowler Asif’s hopes of appearing in an Indian film in which he was supposed to play a cricket coach also look in doubt.
“If he is guilty, I cannot take him in the film as it will impact public sentiment and the success of the film,” director Kaithapram Damodaran Namboothiri told Reuters.
“I cannot blame Asif unless he is proven guilty, but I cannot wait much longer.”
