Vaughan wants legal action against Butt

(BBC) Former England captain Michael Vaughan has urged Andrew Strauss to take legal action against Pakistan cricket chief Ijaz Butt over his match-fixing claims.

Butt claimed he heard from bookmakers that England were paid to lose Friday’s third one-day game at The Oval.

“I’d be making a few phone calls to legal sources to try to take this a little bit further,” said Vaughan.

“I can’t think of anything worse than your name mentioned in terms of fixing a game of cricket,” he told BBC Sport.

Butt’s claims, for which he later admitted he had no proof, sparked outrage, with the England & Wales Cricket Board threatening legal action unless they received an apology.

In a statement, Strauss expressed disappointment that England’s “integrity” had been questioned, and “strong misgivings” about continuing the one-day series against Pakistan.

“I think Andrew Strauss and the team have dealt with it in a very good fashion,” said Vaughan, who captained England between 2003 and 2008. “They’ve kept their dignity and they’ve not said much.

“I’ve never been involved with England team through that kind of allegation or finger pointing.
“But I’d be taking it as far as I can because unless Ijaz Butt takes back the comments, I think this case will go on for a lot longer.”
Butt’s ill-fated intervention came after the International Cricket Council announced an investigation into Pakistan’s performance in last week’s one-day game at the Oval after receiving reports about “scoring patterns” during their innings.
Pakistan set England 242 to win the game but the hosts lost their last five wickets for 17 runs.

On Monday morning, Butt was reported to have told India’s NDTV channel: “There is loud and clear talk in bookie circles that some English players were paid enormous amounts of money to lose. No wonder there was total collapse of the English side.”

However, speaking to BBC Radio 5 live, Butt later claimed he was only stating what he had heard and that he had no proof that England’s players had thrown the game at The Oval.  The episode merely served to heighten tensions in a series tarnished by allegations that Pakistan players were involved in spot-fixing and deliberately bowled no-balls during the Lord’s Test in August.

This led to a police investigation and ICC charges against Test captain Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir – who have all now returned to Pakistan and are not involved in the one-day series.

Fast bowler Wahab Riaz, who was involved in a spat with Jonathan Trott before Monday’s match at Lord’s, has also been interviewed by police – and Vaughan feels the whole affair has overshadowed the end of the series.