Pakistan Cleared in Betting Scandal

Pakistan cricketers have welcomed the conclusions of the investigation into allegations of bookmaking irregularities and spot bet fixing during the third one-day test during the summer. Shahid Afridi, one-day captain and coach Waqar Younis were happy with the result, which cleared the team of any corruption.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) ruled that there was no evidence to support claims made of dubious practices in the test at the Oval on 17th September but that separate investigations into certain scoring patterns that had emerged during the Lords test were still on going.

The Sun newspaper had alleged that they were aware of the predicted Pakistan score before the match had started and led to concern over the state of sports betting on the whole.

Afridi said “I am very happy after hearing the news, I had and will always have full confidence in my team that they will not do anything like that.”

Younis was also pleased with the announcement saying he hoped the spot-fixing cases are also resolved, as they had tarnished Pakistan’s reputation.

Talking about whether the Pakistan Cricket Board would take legal action against The Sun, Taffzul Rizvi said that it depended on the outcome of the spot-fixing investigations still underway. Former selector, Iqbal Qasim was more forthcoming saying that newspapers were always accusing Pakistan of rigging bets and that legal action should be taken to make sure such things do not happen again.