PCB - Riaz to be questioned

Riaz: police interview

Police have also requested that Wahab Riaz be made available for interview on September 14. No charges have been levelled against the players.

Ijaz Butt
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Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt has revealed left-arm paceman Wahab Riaz will be questioned by police next week as part of the ongoing probe into spot-fixing.

Butt also confirmed no charges as yet had been levelled against the three cricketers who have already given statements to Scotland Yard.

Pakistan skipper Salman Butt and seamers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir have been charged and provisionally suspended by the International Cricket Council's Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) for alleged spot-fixing during the fourth Test against England following a News of the World undercover investigation into illegal bookmakers.

Speaking to reporters in Lahore, Butt said: "Police have also requested that Wahab Riaz be made available for interview on September 14. No charges have been levelled against the players."

Turmoil

Cricket was thrown into turmoil when the News of the World claimed journalists posing as Far Eastern businessmen paid a middleman to arrange for Pakistan players to deliberately bowl no-balls.

Agent Mazhar Majeed, a 35-year-old property tycoon who owns Croydon Athletic Football Club, was questioned by police in connection with the inquiry and released on bail without charge.

PCB chairman Butt, who arrived back in Pakistan from London on September 8 to be greeted at the airport by angry jeers from a group of gatherers, has insisted he is determined to get to the root of the issue.

He added: "After the meeting with Scotland Yard and ICC, the boys were released and no charges were levelled against them.

"While they were being interviewed, our Pakistan lawyer Mr Rizvi and our British lawyer Lady Elizabeth Robertson were present. A complete transcript of the meeting will be given to us shortly and permitted portions will be made public.

"After the meeting we had a detailed discussion with our British lawyer and we were of the opinion that if the boys are charged then we will require separate solicitors for each of them.

"With the help of our high commission and Additional Attorney-General of Pakistan, K K Agha, we finalised the list of solicitors on 7th September to represent our cricketers.

"We will continue to co-operate with the police as we also want to get to the bottom of the matter. Rest assured we will not leave any stone unturned to find the truth."

On being asked whether Pakistan will have any inquiry of its own, Butt said that as the ICC was looking into the matter, they could not hold a parallel investigation.

Return home

He also added that the PCB were hoping to bring home the three accused players as soon as possible.

"Since the players are neither being charged nor is there any restriction on their movement, we have informed the police that they will be travelling back to Pakistan in the next few days," Butt said.

Pakistan team manager Yawar Saeed was unaware of the news about Riaz when quizzed on the matter on Thursday.

"I don't know about this but I am sure they will tell me if it's true," he said.

Saeed added Riaz, dropped for Pakistan's second NatWest International Twenty20 match in Cardiff last Tuesday, remains at present in contention to play in the first ODI on Friday.

"Unless he's dropped, he will play," said Saeed. "If I'm told 'don't play X, Y, Z', they won't play.

"If I'm not told, I'll select the best team. But I've not been told anything. Let's wait."