-Pakistan team returns to quiet reception
KARACHI, (Reuters) – The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is considering legal action against England batsman Jonathan Trott after his clash with Pakistani bowler Wahab Riaz before the fourth one-day international at Lord’s, a board source said yesterday.
PCB chairman Ijaz Butt had conferred with his legal team over the possibility of filing legal action against Trott for allegedly calling Riaz “a match fixer” while the two teams were warming up in the nets, the source said.
The two players scuffled and had to appear before the match referee over the incident, with Trott apologising to Riaz.
“There is a strong likelihood that the PCB, in a tit-for-tat response to the threat by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to sue Butt over his remarks against English players, will go after Trott,” the source said.
On Thursday, the ECB demanded a “full and unreserved apology” from Butt for his allegations that England players had engaged in match-fixing.
Butt told a Pakistan television channel, after England lost the third one-day international at the Oval last Friday, that there had been “loud and clear talk in bookies’ circles that some English players were paid enormous amounts of money to lose the match”.
His comments came after the International Cricket Council (ICC) launched an inquiry into Pakistan’s scoring pattern at the Oval after receiving information from a British newspaper.
Pakistan test captain Salman Butt and his team mates Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif were suspended earlier in the tour after an investigation into a newspaper report that they had arranged for no-balls to be deliberately bowled during the fourth test at Lord’s.
The embattled Pakistan team returned home from their tour earlier yesterday, to a quiet reception.
