Match-fixing: Pak envoy, minister back tainted trio
London: The Pakistan establishment on Thursday came out in support of the players, who have been accused of “spot-fixing” and dropped for the remainder of the England tour.
Pakistan High Commissioner to United Kingdom Wajid S Hasan said that tainted trio of Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif and Test captain Salman Butt had not been dropped from the squad and added that they were not in the team as they were not in the right frame of mind to play.
Hasan said the players were not yet guilty and the decision was taken after being requested from the players to recuse them for the upcoming limited-over series starting from Sunday."Players are extremely distorted and disturbed by the turns of events and they are not in the right frame of find to carry on the tournament and hence they requested (Aamer, Asif and Butt) for a recusal," a defiant Hasan told probing media.
Hasan also said in a statement the players maintain "they are entirely innocent in the whole episode and shall defend their innocence as such."
Pakistan's Sports Minister Aijaz Jakhrani also backed the tainted trio on Thursday saying that the players may play the one-day series.
Jakhrani was also not keen to use the word 'dropped' and said the trio was just 'unavailable' to play in the Twenty20 series against England.
Jakhrani said the three players, who allegedly took money from a bookie to bowl no balls during the Lord's Test against England last week, will be in London to "cooperate" with the Scotland Yard's investigation into the 'spot-fixing' scandal.
"They are not playing because they have probably gone to answer the investigating team. They are not at the venue where the matches are being held, so they would not be playing.
Probably they will not play Twenty20 matches but they might be back for the one-dayers," Jakhrani said.
Earlier, the players were omitted from the Pakistan squad for the rest of the tour of England.
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