Cricketers are innocent: Pak High Commissioner Wajad S Hasan

Pakistan High Commissioner Wajad S Hasan said on Thursday that the country will defend its three cricketers accused of the no-ball conspiracy as they maintain they are ‘innocent’.

Test captain Salman Butt and bowlers Mohammed Asif and Mohammed Amir were questioned on Thursday at the High Commission by members of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

Hasan read out a statement saying the men maintained their innocence but had requested their own removal from the remaining matches because of the “mental torture” they had faced.

“They will not run away from England and will stay in the country for as long as they’re needed for questioning,” he said.

“I believe in their innocence. Because they have not been proven guilty. The players are extremely disturbed with what has happened in the past week”.

The Pakistani team manager, Yawar Saeed, said earlier that the players would miss all remaining matches of the tour. Replacements will be called up for the five-match one-day series against England but not for the two Twenty20 matches.

The players’ removal from the squad will come as a relief for the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), who will be hoping the move takes the heat off the rest of the tour and stems any protests by fans.

Giles Clarke, ECB chairman and chairman of the ICC’s Pakistan taskforce, welcomed the announcement that the players would play no further part and said he hoped the remaining matches would be played in a “competitive spirit”.

“I look forward to working with Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, and Ijaz Butt, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, and everyone involved in Pakistani cricket in taking forward cricket in Pakistan so that a proper plan exists for the whole of Pakistani cricket,” he said.