Accused Pakistan trio to miss one-day series

Test captain Salman Butt and bowlers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif will miss Pakistan's one-day series against England after pressure from the English and international governing bodies.

Pakistan High Commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan told reporters in London that the trio had asked the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to withdraw them because of the mental torture they had undergone following media allegations of spot-fixing.

A source in the Pakistan side told Reuters separately on Thursday that the International Cricket Council (ICC) had advised PCB chairman Ijaz Butt to drop the trio while they were under investigation.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has also lobbied the PCB to omit the three players for the seven-match one-day series which starts with a Twenty20 game in Cardiff on Sunday.

They said they are extremely disturbed at what has happened, Hasan told a media scrum after meeting the players. They mentioned that they are entirely innocent.

Hasan said he believed in the players' innocence and added Pakistan could take legal action to defend them.

British police confiscated the three players' mobile phones following allegations of corruption in a British newspaper. They were accused of taking bribes to fix incidents in the fourth test against England which finished at Lord's last Sunday.

PERFECT DAY

The news emerged while a one-day warmup match between Pakistan and Somerset was being played on a perfect summer's day in the west England town of Taunton.

A small group of Pakistan fans gave their team vociferous support and expressed anger at what they said was the readiness of the British media to condemn the entire team.

If they are guilty then they should be punished, Beenish Faridi told Reuters. But these are allegations only and you can't blame the whole team. The whole team is suffering because of this.

Pakistan team manager Yawar Saeed told reporters that the three players would be replaced after the two Twenty20 matches in Cardiff.

The T20 squad for two games will remain as it is here this morning, this means 13 people. For the one-day internationals subsequently we will be asking for replacements to make up the squad of 16 again, he said

ECB chairman Giles Clarke said the board welcomed the decision.

As chairman of the ICC's (International Cricket Council) Pakistan task team I look forward to working with Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board and everyone involved in taking forward cricket in Pakistan, Clarke said in a statement read to reporters.

Clarke has called for an ICC team to visit Pakistan, which has not hosted international cricket since militant gunmen attacked the Sri Lanka team bus in March last year.

(Editing by Alan Baldwin)