Captain, coach doubt Pak trio
Karachi, Dec. 28: Pakistani captain Shahid Afridi, coach Waqar Younis and security manager Khawaja Najam raised serious doubts about the three suspended players to the game’s governing body, a report said on Tuesday.
Dawn newspaper published excerpts of statements given to the International Cricket Council (ICC) over Pakistan’s spot-fixing controversy during its recent England tour that saw Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer suspended.
The statements appear to confirm the three players were in contact with alleged fixer Mazhar Majeed and are likely to impact their case as scheduled to be heard by an ICC tribunal in Doha from January 6-11.
No Pakistani Cricket Board official was reachable for comment on Tuesday. The ICC suspended Butt, Asif and Aamer after British newspaper News of the World claimed several Pakistani players took money to obey orders from Majeed during the team’s Lord’s Test against England in August. Scotland Yard raided the Pakistan team’s hotel in London and questioned the trio.
“During the Scotland Yard search of the players’ rooms at the team hotel, two police officers found cash in a bag and a small suitcase which they seized. Most of the cash was in the suitcase,” Dawn quoted Najam as saying. “I asked the police officers to put on record the amount of money they had confiscated and they did so immediately,” said Najam.
Najam further added: “I offered them support and told them to cooperate with the police. From Mohammad Aamer’s room, a Tag Heuer mobile phone and possibly other mobile phones, £5,000 in cash, a few hundred US dollars and a white envelope with £2,500 was recovered.”
Dawn quoted Afridi as saying that he “thought” that the three suspended players looked guilty during the police raid on the hotel.
“They told me that they had done nothing wrong, to which I replied: ‘If you have done nothing wrong, there is no need to feel guilty’.”
“I did not speak to them again after that about the allegations. I was subsequently told by team management that the Metropolitan Police had found £20,000 in Salman’s room,” he said.
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