British paper calls for Pakistan to be sent home

British newspapers called for the Pakistan team to be sent home. - AP Photo

LONDON: The sister newspaper of the tabloid which made the betting scam allegations engulfing cricket called on Tuesday for Pakistan to be sent home from England.

The Sun, the daily stablemate of the weekly News of the World, also slammed the cricket authorities for doing “nothing” with the evidence presented by the Sunday tabloid.

Britain’s biggest-selling paper claimed it had paid middleman Mazhar Majeed 150,000 pounds for advance details of three deliberate no-balls in the fourth and final Test match betweenPakistan and England, staged at Lord’s in London, which England won Sunday.

The Pakistan team have shifted camp from London to Taunton in southwest England for a tour match on Thursday against county side Somerset.

“Cricket’s men in suits mumble and mutter. And do nothing,” The Sun, Britain’s best-selling daily, said in its editorial.

“From Lord’s to Lahore, the sport’s ruling bodies vow dire consequences against Pakistan’s cheating Test players ‘if they are found guilty’.

“The deafening silence from the Pakistani camp is more damning than a thousand denials.

“The Pakistani squad were able to swan off to Somerset as if nothing had happened.

“Why should the four players most implicated in the betting allegations be allowed to play on?

“It is impossible to escape the impression that cricket’s bosses hope the fuss will die down.

“If not, why have they failed to act with the firmness and resolve called for?

“We don’t need cheats in cricket. Taxi to Heathrow, please - for the entire Pakistan team.”

Meanwhile The Daily Telegraph newspaper said it understood that the International Cricket Council (ICC) had asked the Pakistan Cricket Board for the four players cited in the allegations to be dropped from the squad for the forthcoming limit overs matches againstEngland.

No official request has been made.

The England and Wales Cricket Board is privately adamant that the players at the centre of the allegations should be ommitted from the series, The Guardian and The Times newspapers said.

The Guardian, citing an ICC source, also said the players named in the scandal had been under investigation for months by their anti-corruption unit.

Elsewhere, former Marylebone Cricket Club president Lord Edwin Bramall said it was down to the cricket authorities to take “appropriate action” if the allegations were proven, but said it did not impinge upon the Lord’s Test.

“The delivery of the odd obvious no-ball would not and did not change the course of the match or the outcome,” he wrote in a letter to The Daily Telegraph.

“Wickets falling, high scoring innings and real tension between bat and ball – what more can one ask?” – AFP