SOILED SPORTS

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Pakistan cricketer Yasir Hameed was on Sunday afternoon questioned at his country’s high commission in central London after a newspaper published details of an interview in which the opening batsman had claimed other Pakistani cricketers were involved in widespread match-fixing. The scandal, meanwhile, continued to grow bigger with reports emerging of a Sri Lankan player’s involvement as well.
Pakistan Cricket Board chief Ejaz Butt, high commissioner Wajed Shamsul Hasan and other senior officials questioned Hameed for more than two hours on Sunday, but they did not talk to the media or issue any statement on the fresh allegations against Pakistani cricketers made by the News of The World, a weekly tabloid.
Hameed, wearing jeans and a brown leather jacket, was summoned to the Pakistan high commission and reached at 2.30 pm, but it seems he was whisked away secretly from there as there was no sign of him there after 5.30 pm.
There was speculation that the remainder of Pakistan’s tour of England may be called off but no official confirmation till the time of going to press. The only statement issued by the Pakistan high commission after the meeting at its premises gave over late Sunday night (IST) was a point-by-point rebuttal of Yasir Hameed’s purported claims to the News of The World that the Pakistani cricketers had been involved in fixing in almost every match.
The International Cricket Council on Sunday denied fresh claims that it is investigating an anonymous fourth Pakistani cricketer over match-fixing. The News of the World said that “is not naming this player for legal reasons”.
“We are making no comment regarding the suggestion that the ICC is probing a fourth player,” the ICC said, adding that it does not “comment on ongoing investigations”. The Metropolitan police was not available for comment, but media reports in Britain said Scotland Yard had made it clear it is not investigating a fourth player.
Hameed’s claims in his interview with the tabloid are explosive. “They’ve been caught. Only the ones that get caught are branded crooks,” Hameed is quoted by the News of The World as saying about skipper Salman Butt, and fast bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir. Hameed claimed he lost his place in the team because he had refused offers from bookies while his “corrupt colleagues” reportedly splashed money on plush properties and expensive sports cars. “They were doing it (fixing) in almost every match. God knows what they were up to. Scotland Yard was after them for ages. It makes me angry because I’m playing my best and they are trying to lose,” he said.
Although Pakistan manager Yawar Saeed said in Cardiff that Hameed had denied making the statements attributed to him, the tabloid had uploaded the video interview with the Pakistan batsman on its website. The fresh claims made on Sunday also include the fact that the three cricketers, who were questioned by Scotland Yard on Friday, face 23 ICC charges between them and each charge runs into six pages.
The ICC’s anti-corruption unit, meanwhile, has been monitoring the unusual activities of a leading Sri Lankan player after team members alerted their skipper Kumar Sangakkara of his late-night outings with a man believed to be an illegal bookmaker, PTI reports. Sri Lankan players passed on their concerns to the captain, who followed ICC protocol by contacting the anti-corruption unit. The player has since been investigated by the Sri Lankan police, although no charges have been laid, PTI reported the Guardian, a British daily, as claiming.
The ICC on Sunday again refused to give details of the charges against the three. “We will not revealing any details about the charges,” the ICC said.
The tabloid also claimed that Salman Butt had been warned “five times” about his responsibilities to report any irregular contact with outside agencies. High commissioner Hasan, who was closeted with PCB officials at the high commission on Sunday, told BBC’s Radio 5 Live on Sunday morning that if the three cricketers are guilty, they should be banned for life. “If the News of The World evidence is correct, then I would banish them from cricket,” Mr Hasan said.
Refuting Mr Wajed’s claim about a “set-up” against Pakistani cricketers, the tabloid on Sunday gave detailed evidence that its meeting with British businessman Mazhar Majeed, who has been arrested (then released on bail) and questioned by Scotland Yard and HMRC, took place before the three no-balls were bowled during the Lord’s Test last month.

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3 swimmers dope-positive
Manuja Veerappa
Bengaluru

Sept. 5: Two Common-wealth Games-bound female swimmers are among the three whose dope tests have turned up positive results. These fresh additions to the hall of shame come after four wrestlers and an athlete among the CWG contingent tested positive last week.
On Sunday, Richa Mishra and Jyotsna Pansare were named by the National Anti-Doping Agency (Nada), along with Amar Muralidhar, as having flunked dope tests conducted during the Jaipur Senior National Aquatic Championships last month.
“All the three swimmers have tested positive for Methylhexaneamine in the tests conducted during the nationals held in Jaipur last month. They have been suspended with immediate effect,” Nada director-general Rahul Bhatnagar told this newspaper.
Delhi’s Richa, the undisrupted queen of the pool on the national circuit over the last couple of years, was the lone swimmer to have felled a record during the recent nationals, bettering her own mark of 2:24.93 in the 200m individual medley. Richa, employed by the police, said she would await the B sample report.
Said Richa on Sunday, “Eleven of us now have tested for the same substance, which means there could be some mistake made by the National Dope Testing Laboratory. Unlike the wrestlers, I am not going to get my B sample tested here. If I have to pay for the sample to be tested in Bangkok, I’ll pay for it myself,” she said.
The most shocking among the three was Jyotsna. The 16-year-old from Maharas-htra had last month returned from a three-month training stint at Florida’s Davie Nadadores Swimming Academy. An upcoming talent, the back-stroke specialist rose to prominence at the senior level during the Thiruvananthapuram nati-onals last year. Muralid-haran, who with brother Arjun showed promise a couple of years ago, has been on the downslide over the last two years. In fact, Amar was caught in the doping net a few years ago but was later cleared.
Virendra Nanavati, secretary, Swimming Federation of India, said, “We will wait for the results of the ‘B’ sample and accordingly the quantum of their punishment will be decided.”