London, Sept. 21: Pakistan coach Yawar Saeed, who denied that he had resigned, said there had been an aletercation between the two players on the field. “Yes there were some words exchanged after a misunderstanding over use of nets, but the players moved away after the intervention of the umpires who were present there and our coach,” Mr Saeed said.
“It wasn’t an ideal start to the day, but it has been dealt with,” said Strauss, looking very stressed.
“Any potential area where things might have developed, we were all very keen to calm things down very quickly. I’ve got to give a lot of credit to the players from both sides for doing that. It’s just a fact of life, with a lot of emotion flying around things can get out of hand and I’m very proud of the fact that didn’t happen,” Strauss added.
Pakistan one-day captain Shahid Afridi admitted that following the clash, his team had considered not playing the fourth one-day international at Lord’s. Pakistan won the match to level the five match series at 2-2 but the clash between Riaz and Trott highlighted the tensions between the two teams and the two boards after Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ijaz Butt launched a scathing attack on the English players in the spot-fixing scandal.
“It was an uncalled for accusation and not befitting a professional playing for his country. The incident got ugly as Riaz also reacted rightly to the slur. But we intervened and stopped the matter from getting out of hand,” Afridi said in his ‘Captain’s Corner’ show on Geo News.
The Pakistan skipper said that after the incident in the nets, his players were so upset that they were calls for him not to go out for the toss.
“There was lot of tension in the dressing room but better sense prevailed and we went ahead with the match because we want this series played and completed despite the bad atmosphere,” he said.
Afridi said that Trott had later apologised to Riaz in front of the match referee and the matter was closed.
In a related development, Pakistan high commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan brushed away tension between the teams as a “porting matter” and claimed that the match-fixing row would not affect the relationship between the two sides.However, Mr Hasan supported Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ejaz Butt’s stance on England’s alleged involvement and claimed he had made “a very innocent argument.”
“Mr Butt made a very innocent argument. He said that it’s very strange that, when Pakistan loses a match, people describe it as a spot-fixing or fixing of the match. When Pakistan win the match, the same allegations are levelled against it. While he was in India the bookies told him the matches are fixed in England. It’s the responsibility of the ICC to investigate allegations. This was an allegation made by a member of the ICC’s board,” Mr Hasan told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
Mr Hasan said the issue would not afeect ties between the two sides. “Will this row sour our relationship? My answer is certainly no. This is a separate matter. Our relationship with the UK was not made overnight. It has its roots in the past. It is on solid ground.”
Pakistan coach Waqar Younis, at the post-match press briefing, said his team was under immense pressure due to spot-fixing allegations over the past three weeks.
“It’s good that we concentrate on the game and I think it was a beautiful game of cricket,” he said. “We are a very young side and we’re developing into a good side, then this whole thing happened. Every morning when you pick up a paper it’s tough. I’m so pleased the boys kept their cool. I’m really proud of them,” he said, adding that he would not comment on the statements made by Mr Butt against some of the England cricketers.
England team decided to play the remaining one-day internationals after a lot of soul-searching and reluctance. “There were obviously a lot of meetings on Sunday night. We didn’t have a lot of time to respond to the allegations that surfaced yesterday. We were very disappointed to have our integrity questioned. It was tough starting the day and there was quite a lot of emotion and rawness around,” Strauss said.