Amir fixture was official match, say ECB

The England & Wales Cricket Board has launched an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the appearance of the banned Pakistan fast bowler, Mohammad Amir, in a Surrey League fixture last weekend, after accepting that the fixture, between Addington 1743 CC and St Luke's, falls under its regulatory jurisdiction.

In a press release, the ECB announced that it had requested the Surrey Cricket Board to assist it in its investigation, adding that it had also written separately to Addington, seeking a full written explanation from the club of the events leading up to Amir's appearance in the match.

The ECB's acknowledgement of the incident increases the likelihood that Amir will now face sanctions from the ICC for breaching the terms of the five-year ban that he incurred earlier this year, following his involvement in the spot-fixing scandal which erupted during the Lord's Test between Pakistan and England last August.

Though Amir did not deny reports in the Daily Star that he had taken part in the fixture, he claimed he had done so on the understanding that it did not contravene the terms of his ban - something that the ECB have now made clear is not the case.

"I was informed by club representatives before the game that it was a friendly match, being played on a privately owned cricket ground," Amir told PakPassion.net. "I asked the club representatives if the match fell under the jurisdiction of the ECB and they informed me that the match did not. I spoke to several club representatives about the issue and they all told me that it was a friendly match and therefore would not contravene my ban from the ICC. I was informed that I was fine to play."

Amir also denied that he had signed any registration documents with the club and insisted that he would never have taken the risk of playing had he known it was an official match.

"I would not be stupid enough to knowingly play in a match that I knew would contravene my ban. Wherever I am going to play cricket, the world will know about it. I would not be stupid enough to play in a match where I knew that I would be taking a risk".

Amir was central to Addington's 81-run victory in the game, against St Luke's CC. He surprisingly opened the innings and scored 60 before returning figures of 4 for 9 in seven overs.

This is not the first time Amir has appeared in a game which has had to be investigated by cricket authorities. Earlier this year in January, when he was under provisional suspension and still awaiting punishment for the Lord's scandal, he turned out for a Rawalpindi club to play a friendly game. That prompted the ICC and PCB to investigate the nature of the game before the former eventually concluded that it was an unofficial game and the club wasn't registered with the Rawalpindi cricket association; Amir was thus found to have not broken the ICC's anti-corruption code of conduct