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Pakistan’s top
crime investigative agency will send a team to Britain this week to
probe corruption allegations against some of the country’s cricket
players, a senior official said on Tuesday.

Investigations by
British police and the International Cricket Council (ICC) are already
underway into a newspaper report alleging three Pakistan players had
been bribed to fix incidents in last week’s fourth test against England.

London police have
confiscated the mobile phones of test captain Salman Butt as well as
pace bowlers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif, and the trio – plus
wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal – have been questioned at the team’s hotel.

A senior official
at the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in Karachi told Reuters the
three-member team was likely to leave for London on Wednesday and
planned to meet British police and players.

President Asif Ali
Zardari, who is the patron of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), has
also sought reports from Pakistani officials in London, according to
his official spokesman.

“The President is
in touch with the High Commissioner in London and has asked for reports
on the issue,” Farhatullah Babar told Reuters.

The Pakistan team
arrived in Taunton in west England on Monday to play a warm-up game for
two Twenty20 internationals and a five-match one-day series against
England, which starts on Sunday.

PCB chairman Ijaz Butt said the players being investigated will not be suspended without proof of wrongdoing, however.

“There is a case going on over here with Scotland Yard,” Ijaz told website cricinfo.com.

Fans outraged

“This is only an allegation.

There is still no
charge or proof on that account. So at this stage there will be no
action taken.” The ICC’s anti-corruption unit has been asked to submit
a report on its investigation within the next three days, the world
governing body’s president Sharad Pawar said on Monday.

“We at the ICC are
waiting for definite information from the PCB and our own
anti-corruption unit. We hope to get something in the next two to three
days’ time and that information would lead to appropriate action, if
required,” he said.

Pawar has ruled out the possibility of Pakistan cutting short their tour of England.

On Monday, the
police said they had released on bail a 35-year-old man who had been
arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud bookmakers following the
report in Britain’s News of the World newspaper.

According to the report, Mazhar Majeed, an agent who claimed to represent 10 Pakistan players including Butt,

said Amir and Asif
had bowled three no-balls between them by pre-arrangement in the fourth
test against England which finished on Sunday.

The report also
cast doubt on the second test between Pakistan and Australia in Sydney
this year when the hosts staged a remarkable comeback to win by 36 runs
after overcoming a 206-run first-innings deficit.

The scandal has
outraged cricket fans in Pakistan and the country’s federal sports
minister, Mir Ijaz Hussain Jakhrani, said the players will be given
“maximum punishment” if allegations against them were proved.

“No one has the
right to play with the dignity, honour of the country,” he told
Reuters. “If the allegations are proved then there could be maximum
punishment.

“It could be lifetime ban, it could be anything, it depends on the allegations.”