England may cancel tour if Qayyum's report is changed

London, May 11: England may cancel their tour of Pakistan later this year if it emerged that Justice Malik Mohammad Qayyum's report about match-fixing allegations or its summary was different from the original report.

"If it emerges that the report, or the summary of it, is significantly different from that which Qayyum intended, there is a real prospect that England's winter tour to Pakistan might be cancelled," The Guardian newspaper said on Thursday.

England arrive here on Oct 16 on a 57-day tour during which it will play three Tests and as many one-day internationals. It will be England's first Test tour since the infamous incident involving the then skipper Mike Gatting and Pakistan umpire Shakoor Rana at Faisalabad.

The chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Lt-Gen Tauqir Zia on Wednesday said the judicial commission had found "no planned match-fixing". However, the elusive report does suggest bans and fines for players because certain players allegedly refused to co-operate with the inquiry and not as a product of any other wrongdoing.

The officials of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) strongly reacted to the general's announcement and termed it as an "whitewash". "It seems very odd, " The Guardian quoted Lord MacLaurin, chairman of the ECB, as saying.

"But at the moment we have to wait and see the report before commenting on it further," MacLaurin, who had initiated the ICC's emergency meeting, said.

He added that Pakistan was throwing the gauntlet down to the rest of the cricket world, much of which will be muttering the word "whitewash".

The paper said that PCB chairman's pronouncements on the contents of the report were "significantly at odds" with a series of selective and apparently well-informed leaks over the past six months.

Justice Qayyum has said in recent interviews that he recommended life bans against some players who were still part of the current Pakistan team set-up. According to reports published in Pakistan, Qayyum had found strong evidence of irregularities.

"If indeed the report has been altered, and specifically, if it has been altered to protect the image of Pakistan, and Qayyum is then prepared to be true to his word, then the ICC will have no alternative, if it is not to be seen to be toothless, but to suspend Pakistan in accordance with it resolution at last week's emergency conference," the paper said.

"England's tour, due to begin on Oct 16, would then be in jeopardy." The paper also quoted Bobby Simpson, who was Australia's coach when Salim Malik allegedly offered bribe to Shane Warne, Mark Waugh and Tim May on the 1994 tour, as saying: "I think the important thing is to wait and see how the judge reacts and what his report contains.

"Until we know what exactly is in his report, it is all conjecture. Then it is up to the ICC committees to decide how to deal with it."

Salim Malik was exonerated of all charges in an inquiry but was stripped off captaincy.

"The public must get the truth," General Tauqir Zia had added last night. "We want to close the issue of match-fixing for ever and after making this report public this issue will be buried. I assure you we will implement the report 99.9%."

The paper said that fears were rife that when it came to the crunch, Pakistan's priority would not be to provide a full exposure of their match-rigging conclusions, but to save as much face as possible. It said that the prospect of such a situation became more apparent when Imran Khan, accused the International Cricket Council (ICC) of anti-Pakistan bias.