http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 high commission cries foul, says Pakistan isolated
The ICC may have suspended the three Pakistani players, but, the Pakistan’s high commissioner to the UK, Wajid Shamsul http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Hasan-c61990, has claimed that the three players may have been set up by those wanting to isolate Pakistan.
According to Hasan, the decision to suspend the three Pakistani cricketers came about after the chief executive, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Haroon-Lorgat-c61719 had assured the Pakistan Cricket Board that there was no need to suspend the cricketers. Earlier, the high commission had read out a statement stating that the three players have opted out of the ODI and the T20I series because of the mental torture that they had had to go through.
Hasan had also clarified that the three Pakistani cricketers were innocent till they were proved to be guilty, and that the PCB would not hesitate from going to the court of law to defend the players.
Hasan was asked in an interview with the TV channel, BBC, about whether he thought that the players had been set up. To this, the High Commission replied positively and said that there was a good reason to believe that Pakistan was being isolated. He also added that the ICC was trying to play to the gallery and that the suspension was not ICC’s business.
There were many meetings between the PCB chairman, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ijaz-Butt-c64128 and Lorgat, the chief executive of the ICC, after which the ICC decided that they needed to suspend the players.
However, the war of words between the ICC and the high commission refused to die down as Lorgat indicated that he had informed the PCB and the high commission that the ICC would suspend the cricketers. Lorgat said, “I went yesterday [Thursday] later in the afternoon as a matter of courtesy and met with the High Commissioner and Ijaz [Butt, PCB chairman] and explained to them we will be serving the notice by the end of the evening if we are completed with our work, which we did,”
On Friday, Lorgat was pointedly asked by a journalist whether he had come under pressure to take the decision after having assured the PCB. To this he replied that he had visited the high commission on Thursday afternoon to inform them of the same decision.
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