Extra cash in players’ rooms
Cash exceeding their daily allowance was recovered from the hotel rooms of the Pakistani cricketers implicated in the “spot-fixing” scandal during a raid conducted by Scotland Yard here. “Mr (Yawar) Saeed received a phone call at the team’s hotel in Swiss Cottage, north London, at about 7.30 pm telling him that two police officers were waiting to see him. The police spent two hours searching rooms, including that of Mr Butt and several players, before confiscating the phones” of some players, a report in the Independent said.
“Officers also found large numbers of bank notes in the rooms of unnamed players which exceeded the daily maintenance payment made to the cricketers by their employers. It is not known if these bank notes relate to the allegations,” it said.
Scotland Yard detectives on Sunday visited the Pakistan dressing room immediately after the third day’s play in the fourth Test against England to question the players after the sting operation exposed ‘spot-fixing’ and the alleged nexus between the players and bookies.
The police also questioned a 35-year-old agent about allegations that he accepted £150,000 in cash from undercover News of the World reporters posing as a gambling syndicate.
He was bailed out without any charge on Sunday night.
Detectives took statements from four cricketers of the Pakistan national team after a middleman was seen on film to give precise details of when three “no-balls” would be delivered during the Test match at Lord’s that ended on Sunday.
Post new comment