CRICKET:ANDREW STRAUSS and his England team are considering legal action against Ijaz Butt after the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board refused to withdraw match-fixing claims on a day when his country's blighted tour continued against a backdrop of threats and confrontation.

As Butt refused to rescind claims that England players deliberately lost the third one-day international at The Oval last Friday, Jonathan Trott squared up to Pakistan’s 12th man, Wahab Riaz, in the Nursery End nets at Lord’s shortly before the start of the penultimate one-day international, which England lost by 38 runs.

In a strongly worded statement, Strauss said the players had “strong misgivings” in the wake of Butt’s verbal attack on the team’s integrity but had agreed to play on.

“We would like to express our surprise, dismay and outrage at the comments made by Mr Butt yesterday,” the captain said.

“We are deeply concerned and disappointed that our integrity as cricketers has been brought into question. We deny these allegations completely and will be working closely with the ECB to explore all legal options open to us.”

England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive David Collier conceded the tensions of the preceding 24 hours – since Butt issued claims that England players received “enormous sums of money” to deliberately lose – had contributed to the heightened tension.

“There was an altercation,” he said. “It was fairly minor in nature. It was regrettable but it happened.”

Collier said the match referee from New Zealand had helped to defuse the situation.

“We are very fortunate that we have the experience of a neutral man in Jeff Crowe here, who dealt with it immediately,” he said. “I think feelings have been high in the last 24 hours. We don’t hide behind that, though. We admit that feelings were strong, so that is bound to spill over.”

Butt began the day by appearing to row back from his prepared statement on Sunday, saying he was merely repeating what he had heard from bookmakers. But in later interviews he went on the attack again, saying he would in turn consider legal action against the ECB.

“They said they will sue me – I will sue them,” said Butt, effectively a government appointee whose comments are designed for consumption at home.

“This is something totally wrong . . . This is definitely a conspiracy against Pakistan cricket.”

He later claimed the earlier suspensions of three Pakistan players – Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir – by the International Cricket Council over spot-fixing allegations may be part of a plot to undermine Pakistan’s chances at next year’s World Cup.

“Half our team is destroyed,” he said. “We are preparing for the World Cup. Maybe there are some countries that don’t want us to play in the World Cup. This is wrong. We will look into the conspiracy and definitely, definitely, definitely take action.”

Butt, who sits on the ICC, said the governing body’s handling of the investigation was “terrible” and called for the chief executive, Haroon Lorgat, to be fired. But it is understood Butt dined with Lorgat on Saturday night and did not mention any of his concerns.

The comments of the PCB chairman prompted Strauss to call a tense team meeting yesterday morning, at which it was decided the match would go ahead.

“Under the circumstances, we have strong misgivings about continuing to play the last two games of the current series and urge the Pakistani team and management to distance themselves from Mr Butt’s allegations,” Strauss said.

The ECB added “it would set a dangerous precedent to call off a tour based on the misguided and inaccurate remarks made by one individual”.

A former PCB chairman had warned yesterday the match-fixing accusations against England would further isolate Pakistan from the cricket community.

“It is ridiculous what he has said,” Khalid Mehmood said. “If he had any proof or information about English players he should have gone with it to the ICC or Scotland Yard, which is already investigating allegations against our players.

“By making such direct accusations, Mr Butt has only ensured we may lose the support of a board that has been very helpful to us since teams have refused to tour Pakistan because of security reasons.”

Guardian Service