Pakistan head to Taunton

The Pakistan squad has left London for Taunton amid the allegations of spot-fixing surrounding several players, while the man at the centre of the scandal, Mazhar Majeed, has been released on bail by Scotland Yard pending further questioning at a later date. Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif, the three players who have had mobile phones confiscated, have travelled with the squad to Somerset.

Several Pakistan fans outside the team hotel in Swiss Cottage shouted "thieves" at the players as they boarded the coach while Sky News reported that police had removed a number of eggs from people waiting for the coach to leave.

Originally the tourists weren't due to leave London until Tuesday, but the four-day finish to the final Test at Lord's means they have brought forward their departure. They are due to play a warm-up match against Somerset on Thursday before travelling to Cardiff for the first of two Twenty20 internationals on September 5.

Richard Gould, the Somerset chief executive, said the county was preparing as normal for the team's arrival. "We are expecting them in the next 12-24 hours," he told Cricinfo. "They are due to train on Wednesday, but if they need anything before then they'll have the use of the indoor school and gym. We hope to give them the best chance to prepare for the one-day series."
Gould added that the club would be implementing the security plans they used during the World Twenty20 last year when Taunton hosted the women's group matches, but that wasn't a response to events of the last 24 hours.

"We aren't looking at increasing the security presence," he said. "We had already decided to implement the
plans from last year because it was a high-profile side visiting and the model we used at the World Twenty20 was drawn up to cater for such events."
There are a number of fresh faces joining up with the squad for the one-day leg of the tour, including Shoaib Akhtar and Shahid Afridi, who returns as captain in place of Salman Butt having given up the leadership following the first Test against Australia, at Lord's, in July. Six players who aren't involved are returning to Pakistan with Imran Farhat, Raza Hasan, Shoaib Malik, Tanvir Ahmed, Umar Amin and Yasir Hameed not included for the Twenty20 and ODIs.
Following the conclusion of the Test on Sunday, Pakistan's team management insisted that their one-day series will go ahead as planned next week and Sharad Pawar, the ICC president, said that was also the feeling of the governing body. "It's the desire of the ICC England and Pakistan that the series should continue," he said.

Andrew Strauss, however, admitted to mixed feelings about the series of five ODIs and two Twenty20s and said that he and his team needed to come to terms with the current issue before turning their attention to the rest of the tour.
"I honestly think that the best thing to do is let the dust settle on this," said Strauss, when asked about the feasibility of the tour continuing. "It's all new and raw and it's easy to get quite emotional about things right at the moment. For all of us, it's better to see how things pan out - clearly the ICC, ECB and Pakistan Cricket Board have to sit down and put their heads together, and decide what the best way forward is, and we as a cricket team we have to take stock as well.
When asked if he was happy to carry on playing against a team that has been accused of deliberately underperforming, Strauss offered a response that was non-committal at best. "It's just so hard to say with incomplete information at this stage," he said. "From our point of view we are going to sit down and have a couple of drinks and celebrate the fact that we won the series tonight. And then in the next few days I'm sure a lot of things will become a lot clearer."
The ultimate decision, he added, would be made at boardroom level. "That's something for the ICC, the ECB and the PCB to sit down and decide what the best way forward is. Clearly there are going to be some very strong reasons for the series to go ahead, but they've also got to sit down and think about what the right thing to do is, going forward, and that's their decision."
Pakistan's manager, Yawar Saeed, however, insisted that the itinerary would continue as planned, with a one-day warm-up against Somerset at Taunton scheduled for Thursday. "As far as I'm concerned the one-day series is on."