 The Pakistan cricket board chairman, Ijaz Butt, has said sorry to the English
cricket board and the England team players for his remarks over the match-fixing
in the Oval ODI. The chairman issued an apology after he had been threatened with
legal action if he had failed to apologise to the English cricketers.
Butt had made disparaging remarks about the English after the team had lost
to Pakistan team in the third ODI of the five-match series. Butt had
said that he had heard from the illegal bookies that the English cricketers
had accepted money to lose the Oval ODI.
The English cricketers were enraged and had said that they were contemplating
on not continuing with the series. The ECB had then requested the players to
allow the series to continue but on behalf of the players had sent a notice
to the PCB chairman. He was asked to apologise or face legal action in the court.
A joint statement was issued by the PCB and ECB, in which Butt said that he
had had no proof of the player involvement and that he had made a mistake by
making such an announcement. Earlier, Butt had said that he would not apologise
for his comments.
In his apology, Butt said that it was sad that there was such a misunderstanding
between the two cricket boards.
Butt also said that he never intended to hurt the feelings of the English players,
and nor did he mean that the players integrity was an issue. He also added that
he did not mean that the English players were involved in any kind of a conspiracy
against the Pakistanis. Not only that, Butt also said that the ECB had assisted
the PCB a lot in their times of trouble. Pakistan have been playing their home
games at neutral venues after the teams have stopped touring the country due
to security reasons.
England cricket board's chairman, Giles Clarke, is a part of the Pakistan
task force that is looking into the feasibility of playing in the country again.
Butt called the ECB as his friends and said that they were supportive of their
cricket.
Even the ICC chief, Haroon Lorgat welcomed the move and said that the apology
was good way to move forward. He had earlier said that Butt should have gone
through official channels if thought that there were issues with match-fixing.
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