Pakistan have added two newcomers to its squad for the five one-day internationals against England, after the tainted trio were suspended pending a spot-fixing investigation.

“Asad Shafiq and Mohammad Irfan will join the team for the one-day series as we have decided to keep the squad of 15,” Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi told AFP from Taunton, England.

The trio of Butt, Aamer and Asif along with four other Pakistani players were accused in a British Sunday tabloid sting of being part of a plan to deliberately bowl no-balls during the team’s fourth Test against England at Lord’s.

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Pakistan lashed out at the ICC for suspending three of its players facing ‘spot-fixing’ charges and blamed ICC President Sharad Pawar for the suspension.

Pakistan’s High Commissioner to Britain, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, threatened to sue the ICC for its unethical decision of suspending the players and said it was trying to make Pakistan a “scapegoat” for its inefficiency.

“The three players requested me to ask the PCB not to consider them for the rest of the series because they wanted to clear their name and honor. I conveyed their request to PCB chief Ijaz Butt who accepted it but all of a sudden the ICC came out with the notice,” he said.

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Cash used in the spot-fixing scandal during last week’s Lord’s Test is understood to have been found in the belongings of Pakistan Test captain Salman Butt, a report said.

According to a report in the Daily Mail, Scotland Yard officers would question Butt on Friday over how marked notes were discovered from his hotel room and in his locker at the Lord’s cricket ground.

The money is believed to have been part of 150,000 pounds handed over by an undercover News of the World reporter to the
alleged fixer Mazhar Majeed, the newspaper said.

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Giving a new twist to the spot-fixing scandal involving the Pakistan cricket team, Pakistan High Commissioner Wajid S Hassan on Friday said that the three accused players were “innocent” and Indian bookmakers were involved in the whole episode.

“I found that all these three players were absolutely innocent. They were not involved, they have been taken for a ride and the agent (Mazhar Majeed) was the culprit, in the sense that he was responsible for defrauding some Asian bookies,” Hassan said.

“The British press says Asian but if they were from Pakistan they (British media) would have called Pakistanis, which means some Indian bookies were involved in it. This Majeed allegedly defrauded these Indian bookies and so the newspaper investigated this sort of sting operation through their sources here,” he said.

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In an order to restore the game’s credibility, ICC today charged and suspended Pakistan’s tainted trio of Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer under its anti-corruption code in the wake of the spot-fixing scandal.

The International Cricket Council said the three players have been notified officially of the offences they are alleged to have committed and have been provisionally suspended pending a decision on the charges. The PCB had already dropped them from the remaining matches of the England tour.

“In accordance with the provisions of the code, this means they are immediately barred from participating in all cricket and related activities until the case has been concluded,” ICC said in a statement.

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As the India’s youngsters are not performing well these days, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni would face a big challenge especially after the retirement of the senior players, former captain Sourav Ganguly said on Thursday.

“Dhoni’s biggest challenge will be in the coming one or two years when Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman retire. Next year, we have about five away series and it will be a test of his captaincy and his players. His future as Indian captain will be determined,” Ganguly said.

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Australian all-rounder Shane Watson has questioned the determination of the International Cricket Council’s anti-corruption unit to expose match-fixing.

Watson said the ICC’s refusal to suspend the Pakistan players implicated in the sport’s latest betting scandal called into question the world body’s ability or willingness to catch -fixers.

He said it was a disgrace to cricket that an English newspaper had to bring to light the most recent scandal and the reported involvement of Pakistan players with bookmakers might be “the tip of the iceberg”.

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The trio, Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, who has been alleged in the spot fixing controversy are dropped from the limited over leg of the England tour, as told by the team manager Yawar Saeed. The players are not suspended, he added.

The three players are currently in London, where they are due to meet Pakistan’s high commissioner to the UK. The PCB chairman, Ijaz Butt, is expected to be at that meeting.

Speaking in Taunton, where the Pakistan team are to play a warm-up match later on Thursday, Saeed said he had taken the decision, and also called for three replacements. “The T20 squad will remain what it is here this morning, i.e. 13 people,” Saeed said. “When we play the one-day internationals we will be asking for replacements to make the squad up to 16.”

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Actress-model Veena Malik known to Pakistani cricketer Mohammad Asif, has handed over proof of his alleged links with Indian bookies to an official of the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit.

Hasan Raza, who is a top official of the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit for South Asia, met Malik at her residence last evening after she alleged that Asif was involved in match-fixing and she had “ample” proof of this.

“I handed over Asif’s voice recordings with the bookie and some other related information to the ICC official,” Malik told a TV news channel.

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