Police quiz for Pakistan cricketers (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)

Police quiz for Pakistan cricketers

4:55pm Friday 3rd September 2010 in

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Three Pakistan cricketers at the centre of match-fixing allegations are being questioned by police as the sport's governing body insisted corruption in the game was not widespread.

Cricket chiefs said the claims of no-balls being bowled to order in last month's Lord's Test match was not "the tip of the iceberg".

And the International Cricket Council (ICC) denied there was conspiracy against Pakistan cricket.

Pakistan test captain Salman Butt and bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were charged on Thursday night under the anti-corruption code of the ICC and provisionally banned from playing in any match.

The players claim they are innocent but have been charged with "various offences" under Article 2 of the ICC's anti-corruption code relating to alleged irregular behaviour during and in relation to the fourth Test between England and Pakistan.

The ICC action follows newspaper allegations that a middleman accepted £150,000 to arrange for Pakistan players to deliberately bowl no-balls during the match.

When asked at a Lord's press conference whether the case was "the tip of the iceberg" ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said: "We don't believe this is widespread."

And Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the head of the ICC's anti-corruption unit, added: "I do not see this as the tip of the iceberg."

Pakistan's top diplomat in Britain attacked the ICC, accusing it of "just playing to the public gallery".

Wajid Hasan, the High Commissioner in London, has said he believed the trio played no part in an alleged plot to bowl no-balls to order during Pakistan's Lord's defeat. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I met the cricketers for two hours, cross-questioned them, got to the bottom of it and concluded that they were innocent and that's what I said to the media."