Pakistan to send investigators to UK
A team made up from Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and possibly an official from the sports ministry will be heading to England as part of Pakistan's probe into the spot-fixing allegations
Osman Samiuddin
30-Aug-2010

There has been an angry reaction in Pakistan to the spot-fixing allegations • AFP
A team made up from Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and
possibly an official from the sports ministry will be heading to England
as part of Pakistan's probe into the spot-fixing allegations swirling
around some of Pakistan's top cricketers.
No date of their departure is, however, set yet. A request has been made
to the UK government to let the team know when an appropriate time might
be for the them to travel.
The composition was discussed at a meeting between Interior Minister
Rehman Malik and the Sports Minister Ijaz Jakhrani on Tuesday. Inam Ghani,
the FIA director, and Azad Khan, the agency's additional director, have
been nominated to travel to London. The feeling in the interior ministry
is that a point of view from the sports ministry is relevant and
significant to the team's work. An official from the sports ministry is
expected to be announced by Wednesday.
Four players were alleged by the News of the World to be involved
in spot-fixing. Mazhar Majeed was caught on camera by the newspaper
claiming to have bribed fast bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir to
bowl deliberate no-balls during the Lord's Test against England. Majeed,
who also claimed Salman Butt and Kamran Akmal were involved, was arrested
before being let out on bail without charge. Scotland Yard spoke to Butt
as well as Amir and Asif, searched their rooms and
confiscated their mobile phones.
"The team will interact with Scotland Yard over there and our involvement
will be largely dependent on the investigations of Scotland Yard," Malik
told Cricinfo. "This will be fact-finding team, to ascertain what has
happened and why it might have done. There will be interaction with
Scotland Yard not interference because it has happened in the UK not in
Pakistan."
The involvement of the ministries indicates the seriousness with which the
government is viewing the allegations. Already the President Asif Ali
Zardari (also the chief patron of the PCB) has asked for - and been sent -
a preliminary report by the PCB into the matter. The Prime Minister Yousuf
Raza Gillani has also spoken sternly of the "shame" the incident has
caused Pakistan.
A request has also been made to Interpol London by the interior ministry
to send background information into the case to Interpol Pakistan.
Osman Samiuddin is Pakistan editor of Cricinfo