Aamir asked to give info to escape ban

Mohammad Aamir has been reportedly been asked to provide information on his team mates in order to escape a life ban.
The Daily Mail has reported that the 18-year-old Amir can avoid a life ban if he gives evidence against Salman Butt and Asif.
the fastest bowler to reach 50 Test wickets had earlier got support from the likes of Mike Atherton and Nasser Hussain, who believe that the youngster could have been pressurised to fix by the captain and the senior bowler.
ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat had also acknowledged age being a factor for determine punishment for Aamir

ICC sends official notice to Akmal

The ICC has sent an official notice to Pakistan wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal telling him that he is under investigation for allegedly fixing the Sydney Test."Only months after clearing the Pakistan team of any wrongdoing in relation to the controversial Test, the ICC has written to Kamran to advise him he is now in their crosshairs for the Sydney debacle," a report in the `Courier Mail` said.

Kamran had dropped four catches in the Sydney Test where Australia won the match from a losing position, rasing doubts of match-fixing. The ICC then investigated the matter and gave a clean chit to him.

However, the world governing body was left red-faced after Pakistan opener Yasir Hameed reportedly claimed that the SCG Test was rigged and players involved in the corruption had pocketed USD 3 million for the staged loss.
"ICC investigators have re-opened the SCG case and fingered Kamran as their primary suspect. But investigations aren`t moving at a fast pace, with the NSW Fraud Squad yesterday revealing they had received no contact from Scotland Yard detectives or the ICC," the report said.
Even as the investigators probe the SCG Test, Australian wicketkeeping great Ian Healy said Kamran could not have dropped those catches deliberately.
"You couldn`t drop those on purpose the way he was," he said.

One win will put pakistan on track

Islamabad: Pakistan cricket fans and former players believe only winning will allow the team to overcome a match fixing scandal that has resulted in several players being suspended.
Zaheer Abbas — known as the Asian Bradman — said on Wednesday that one win could boost the morale of the team which lost back-to-back Twenty20 internationals against England this week.
                  
"Victory is the only solution to lift the morale of the team," Abbas told the Associated Press on Thursday.
England clinch the Twenty20 series 2-0 and the two teams will start a five-match one-day series on Friday.
During the Twenty20 matches, the ongoing investigation of the Pakistan players appeared to take its toll with the team's batsmen especially looking out of sorts.
The ICC has provisionally suspended Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif after a British newspaper alleged they were paid to deliberately bowl no-balls in a Test match against England. They have 14 days to decide whether they want to appeal against the suspension.
Most of the Pakistan batsmen fell to poor shot selection on Wednesday, with England dismissing Pakistan for 89 — its lowest ever total in a Twenty20 internationals.
"Batting is the real problem and I think captain Shahid Afridi should have showed some responsibility," Abbas said.
Afridi was one of the culprits of throwing away the wicket for just two runs while he had more than 15 overs at his disposal.
"He had a lot of time and should have showed some patience," Abbas said.
Afridi said he missed the suspended trio of opening batsman Butt, Asif and Amir — something Abbas seemed to suggest didn't make a lot of sense.
"I don't know how vital Butt is for T20 because he doesn't regularly plays this form of the game," Abbas said. "We did miss Asif and Amir in bowling but we could have managed without them if our batsmen had put enough runs on board."
Most fans just want the investigation by the ICC and Scotland Yard to complete their investigation, so the team can move forward. Until then, most fear that the team's performance will be overshadowed by the probe.
"How can you expect the players to play with no pressure when the inquiry against their teammates is still going on?" questions Yousuf Mustafa, a college student. "Either our three players are guilty or they are not guilty. There's no third option."
For many fans like Taha Shaikh Shabbir, winning would help bring some joy to a country which continues to endure suicide bombings and the fallout from massive flooding that has left millions homeless.
"Hockey is our national sport but cricket is 10 times popular than that," Shabbir said. "We feel proud whenever our cricket team performs well in an otherwise depressing news emerging from our country."

Afridi facing tough task in boosting Pakistan

CARDIFF — Pakistan one-day captain Shahid Afridi admitted he had a job on his hands to raise the morale of his scandal-hit side after they were bowled out for just 89 by England in a thumping Twenty20 loss.

Pakistan were dismissed for their lowest Twenty20 score in 40 matches at this level at Sophia Gardens here on Tuesday as England won by six wickets to wrap up a 2-0 series win with a mammoth 36 balls to spare.

World Twenty20 champions England, who completed a 3-1 Test series win over Pakistan last month, will now look for fresh success when the teams meet in the first of five one-day internationals at Chester-le-Street, northeast England, on Friday.

"We were very bad, inexperienced and immature from my side and from all the batsmen," Afridi told reporters. "I think we played very bad cricket.

"It will be a big challenge to compete in the one-dayers, but we have some time," he added.
"Me, my coach (Waqar Younis) and the team, we will sit together and talk."
Pakistan's tour has been overshadowed by a 'spot-fixing' scandal that has seen Test captain Salman Butt and bowlers Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif all suspended by the International Cricket Council after allegedly conspiring to deliberately bowl no-balls during last month's fourth Test at Lord's.
But Afridi said off-field problems could not account for Pakistan's form.
"We are coming through a bad situation, but as professionals we should take that from our mind and focus on our cricket.

"At this stage I know our morale is very down. It is down day by day, and game by game. But one victory and it will be very high.

"I just want one victory. I'm not letting my team down like this, not in the one-dayers," Afridi added.
But he conceded the loss of the suspended trio had hit Pakistan hard.

"I made some plans as a captain, I knew Salman Butt was my opener and key player, and Asif and Amir.

"Everything has changed as a captain for me, but inshallah (God willing) I will bring my team up."

Victory, built on seamer Tim Bresnan's man-of-the-match winning return of three wickets for 10 runs in 3.4 overs, saw England to a seventh straight Twenty20 success - equalling the record for consecutve international victories in this format shared by South Africa and Pakistan.

"In this form of the game it can be tough to win consecutively," said England Twenty20 captain Paul Collingwood.

"It just takes one performance from the opposition to take it away from you.

"To have that 'World Cup', you can have added pressure on you as well.
"But the way we've played over the last two games, the boys are enjoying that added pressure," added Collingwood, who led England to a five-wicket win over Pakistan here on Sunday.
"They tried to come hard at us today (Tuesday) -- you could sense that was their approach -- but we kept taking wickets and really applying the pressure."

England seal 2-0 series victory

Pakistan's batsmen floundered against a pumped-up England bowling attack, as they crashed to their lowest Twenty20 total of all time in front of one of the smallest crowds of the summer. After winning the toss on a showery evening in Cardiff, they chose to bat first and were made to regret it, as they were skittled for 89 with eight deliveries of their innings to spare.

Although Pakistan this time batted first of their own volition, their innings started in an uncannily familiar fashion to Sunday's first fixture. A loose first over from Ryan Sidebottom was swatted for 11 useful runs (one fewer than had been the case two days earlier), before Tim Bresnan dismissed Kamran Akmal via a rash pull for the second game running. He struck with his second ball on Sunday, and his fourth today, but at 11 for 1, Pakistan's innings had once again been robbed of its early momentum.
The situation got steadily worse for Pakistan, even though Mohammad Yousuf was given an early let-off on 1 as Eoin Morgan spilled a scything cut at point. He couldn't make the most of his good fortune, however, as Bresnan claimed his second wicket in five balls with a well-directed bouncer that was flapped loosely to Ravi Bopara at deep square leg.
Six balls later, Shahzaib Hasan was also suckered by the short ball, this time courtesy of Stuart Broad, who beat him for pace as he swished airily and snicked the thinnest of edges through to the keeper, Steven Davies. And Broad then made it two in an over, as an anxious Shahid Afridi poked nervously at his first ball before wiping his fourth to Morgan at midwicket. At 22 for 4 after five overs, Pakistan were already dealing with damage limitation.
Mohammad Hafeez's response was to drop anchor as if he was battling to save a Test match. He faced 19 of the next 21 deliveries of the innings, picking off five singles while Umar Akmal ticked impatiently at the other end of the pitch, and it came as little surprise when Umar beat that tally in one blow by mowing Graeme Swann straight back over his head for the first six of the series. He produced an identical blow in Swann's next over, only to fall one delivery later, as Swann gave the ball extra air outside off stump, and a clueless Umar threw back his head to be bowled through the gate for 17.
Abdul Razzaq survived a tight stumping chance on 3 as he corkscrewed his boot back into the crease, but Hafeez's torturous innings was ended by a sharp run-out as Sidebottom shied at the non-striker's end from short fine leg. Two balls and a single later, Fawad Alam's grim series was concluded by a first-ball duck, as he attempted to cut Swann off the back foot and edged instead to the keeper.
Umar Gul produced the shot of the innings when he lifted a Broad slower ball over the fine leg boundary for six, but Razzaq was unable to find his range in a fitful performance. He finally struck his first boundary from his 19th delivery, as Sidebottom offered too much width from a low-toss, only for both men to fall from his next two deliveries. First to go was Razzaq, who top-edged a slower-ball bouncer to Yardy at slip, before Gul pumped a similar delivery to Bopara, running in from deep square leg.
Shoaib Akhtar creamed Bresnan through the covers for a handsome four, but before the over was out, Bresnan had been rewarded for an impressive performance with his third and final wicket of the innings. A well-directed yorker took out the base of middle stump to complete the fine figures of 3.4-0-10-3, and leave England chasing a meagre 90 for victory.
England 1 Craig Kieswetter, 2 Steve Davies (wk), 3 Ravi Bopara, 4 Paul Collingwood, 5 Eoin Morgan, 6 Luke Wright, 7 Tim Bresnan, 8 Michael Yardy, 9 Graeme Swann, 10 Stuart Broad, 11 Ryan Sidebottom
Pakistan 1 Shahzaib Hasan, 2 Kamran Akmal (wk), 3 Mohammad Hafeez, 4 Fawad Alam, 5 Mohammad Yousuf, 6 Umar Akmal, 7 Shahid Afridi (capt), 8 Abdul Razzaq, 9 Umar Gul, 10 Saeed Ajmal, 11 Shoaib Akhtar