Pakistan High Commissioner defends Ijaz Butt - UK Minister opposed to banning Pakistan from International Cricket
Wajid Shamsul http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ijaz-Butt-c64128, insisting that the quarrel over match fixing would not in any way affect the Pakistan-Britain relationship. However, he played down
the allegations made by Ijaz Butt against England calling his comments as a “very innocent argument.”
The ECB has come down hard at the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 Cricket Board Chairman for his comments and warned that they would take legal action against Butt while describing his comments as “wholly irresponsible and completely without foundation”.
However, the English Cricket Board took their time to issue a well thought out statement after consultation with their team that emphasized that the tour would still continue. The tension between the two camps, however, was more than palpable following a
scuffle between Jonathan Trott and Wahab Riaz, where the two were separated after the English team’s batting coach, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Graham-c60529 Gooch, intervened.
Some media reports alleged that http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 had threatened to pull out of the series following the scuffle, but the teams eventually played down the heated argument before the beginning of the fourth ODI match that Pakistan went on to win with a considerable
margin.
Meanwhile, the High Commissioner defended Butt’s statement and offered clarification, "He said it's very strange that, when Pakistan loses a match, people describe it as spot-fixing or fixing of the match. When Pakistan wins the match, the same allegations
are leveled against it."
Hasan also went on to defend the Pakistan players against the recent allegations published in the British Tabloid ‘The Sun’ that accused the players of handing out scoring patterns to the bookies before the match had even started.
In yet another development, Hugh Robertson, the UK’s Sports Minister told ‘Today' that those who were making calls for Pakistan to be thrown out of the world of cricket do not completely understand the negative impact this might have. "In terms of the wider
British-Pakistan relationship, if we were seen to be playing a part in throwing them out of world cricket that would have a very severe impact across the piece."
This statement carries far wider implications and it is heartening to see that the minister for sports and Pakistan’s High Commissioner are trying to bridge the cracks and crevices that might have appeared between Pakistan and England following the controversial
statement by Mr. Ijaz Butt.
Mr. Wajid insisted that Ijaz Butt has been misinterpreted.
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