No player to be suspended till charges proven: PCB

LAHORE The Pakistan Cricket Board is not suspending any cricketer involved in the alleged spot-fixing scam until proven guilty. An official of the PCB said that the board will not suspend any player named in the betting scam and the tour of England will continue as planned. However, these players can be withdrawn at any point of time. An official of the board said that the players will not be playing todays match against Somerset. Chairman PCB Ijaz Butt just told us that since there is a case going on with the Scotland Yard, we are not going to suspend any player, a PCB spokesman said. He said that the PCB chief would be travelling to London for a meeting with the Pakistan High Commission to discuss the legal implications of the case with a lawyer or a team of legal advisers arranged by the High Commission. He said that all the reports of abandoning the tour were wrong. It will continue as planned and no player will be put to account until proven guilty, he added. Reports were circulating since the scandal came to light that the players will be banned. However, the PCB official said that no action will be taken against the players until the completion of the probe. The International Cricket Council (ICC) has also promised prompt and decisive action if the allegations made by a British Sunday newspaper were proven. British media reported on Tuesday that the players named in allegations captain Salman Butt, Mohammad Aamer, Mohammad Asif and Kamran Akmal - were unlikely to play in the series of one-day internationals against England. The Pakistan team begin their preparation for the one-day series with a practice match against English county Somerset on Thursday. The first one-day match against England is on Sunday. The Daily Telegraph newspaper said that the ICC had asked the Pakistan authorities for the four players cited in the allegations to be dropped from the squad, although no official request has been made. Other media reports said the ECB was adamant that the players at the centre of the allegations should be omitted from the one-day series. Another report, citing an ICC source, claimed that the same players had been under investigation for months by their anti-corruption unit. Investigators from the ICCs anti-corruption and security unit have travelled to Britain to look into the fixing claims, and ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said action would be taken against any guilty players. Despite calls for the series to be scrapped, England spin bowler Graeme Swann insisted the one-day fixtures should be fulfilled. Im keen for them to go ahead, he wrote in The Sun newspaper. With nothing proved, I will have no problem whatsoever about who I play against. Cricket in Pakistan has been dogged by fixing allegations since the 1990s. But Pakistan cricket great Imran Khan said this could be the worst scandal of all.

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