Why pick on Pakistan, Butt asks

Dubai: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ijaz Butt can't seem to understand why players from his country are always the first to be blamed when something goes wrong in international cricket.

"Pakistan lost the match in the first instance [at Lord's]. However at The Oval, Pakistan won the match and statements are being made that Pakistan is responsible and not England. [The] England team is the one which lost six wickets for about 20 runs and they may be susceptible to the bookies. This is not fair and I cannot understand why such statements are being made against Pakistan," Butt, who was on a visit to Dubai, told Gulf News in an exclusive interview on Sunday.

"There is loud and clear talk in bookie circles that some of the English players were paid enormous amounts of money to concede the match and there was a total collapse of the English side. The media in some countries are very biased," he said.

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Touching on investigations by Scotland Yard in the wake of the spot-fixing scandal, he added: "Scotland Yard had detailed interviews with the three players named in the scandal for over nine hours and no charges have been framed against them. So we requested Scotland Yard to allow them to travel to Pakistan for Eid and they permitted them. We will send these players back whenever they want them. We have made a joint statement with the Scotland Yard — categorically stating that there were no charges made against these three boys and so we strongly believe that as long as they are not proved guilty they are not guilty. You cannot make fleeting statements that somebody is guilty without investigating the matter."

He added: "We will cooperate with all bodies who investigate as this is a menace which must be sorted out once and for all and we are fully with the ICC and all other bodies which want to end this menace. If anybody [is] guilty we will take them to task."

Butt also expressed his disappointment with the ICC for not following the protocol of informing the PCB before making statements on Pakistani players.

"The ICC Code of Conduct clearly states they must do an investigation before convicting anybody. Making statements to the media without any investigation was not correct. In both instances, the ICC did not inform us or England. Giles Clark and I were present at Lord's but we were not informed. They informed MCC who are not actually concerned with the match."

The news about South African players refusing to play Pakistan in the UAE was also totally wrong, he said. "South Africa has denied the news and PCB officials will be here tomorrow to work out detailed arrangements for the series," he said.