Pakistan cricket has been hit by a multitude of woes from doping and infighting to ball-tampering and bad governance but now faces its most severe test after new charges of match-fixing.
The embattled national team was embroiled in allegations of match-fixing on Sunday after British police arrested a man on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud bookmakers.
The controversy erupted after the News of the World alleged that some members of the Pakistan team were involved in a betting scam in the ongoing fourth and final Test against England at Lord's.
“Following information received from the News of the World we have arrested a 35-year-old man on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud bookmakers,” a spokesman for London's Metropolitan Police told AFP.
News of the World , Britain's biggest-selling newspaper, alleged that two Pakistan bowlers delivered three blatant no-balls. The weekly tabloid said it gave £150,000 ($230,000) to a middle man who correctly told them in advance precisely when the deliveries would be bowled.
The newspaper published images and dialogue from the encounter and a picture of what it said was one of the promised no-balls on Friday.
It also ran a photograph of Pakistan captain Salman Butt standing with the man they claimed was the middleman, and one of their reporters.
Pakistan's team manager Yawar Saeed told Sky News television the allegations were being investigated.
The newspaper claimed they had posed as front men for an Asian gambling cartel, paying £10,000 to the alleged fixer as an upfront deposit.
They met again on Wednesday in a west London hotel room to hand over the rest of the money as their “entry ticket” into what they claimed was a “huge betting syndicate”.
Mani shocked
Former ICC President Ehsan Mani is baffled how a bookie managed to get in touch with the players despite restrictions imposed by the anti-corruption unit. “This latest scandal has come as a total shock to me. It is so bad for the image of cricket which we are trying to globalise,” Mani told ‘ Geo Super ' channel.
“How this happened is beyond me, what was the Pakistan team management or the ICC anti-corruption unit doing?” he added.
