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Life bans if you fixed it! ICC finally get tough and issue threat over alleged Pakistan spot-fixing[/size]
Cricket's governing body finally flexed their muscles and threatened the Pakistan players accused of corruption with life bans if their guilt in established.
The International Cricket Council charged Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer with various offences under their anti-corruption code at the end of a tumultuous day in which the Pakistanis had come out fighting and professed their innocence.
It has taken the ICC five long days since the dramatic allegations of wrong-doing in the Lord's Test to show they mean business.
The accused trio, who stood down from the Pakistan one-day party citing 'mental torture', now face a round of questioning from Scotland Yard officers as they fight for their futures after being suspended with immediate affect.
'We will not tolerate corruption in cricket - simple as that,' said Haroon Lorgan, the ICC chief executive. 'We must be decisive with such matters and, if proven, these offences carry serious penalties up to a life ban.
'The ICC will do everything possible to keep such conduct out of the game and we will stop at nothing to protect the sport's integrity. While we believe the problem is not widespread, we must always be vigilant.
'It is important, however, that we do not pre-judge these players. That is for the independent tribunal alone to decide.'
It was the perfect and much-needed response from the ICC after a day in which there was a significant shift in the attitude of the Pakistan camp towards defiance.
The drama started with England seemingly forced to settle for an unsatisfactory fudge in the betting scandal when the three Pakistan players accused of spot-fixing were allowed to pull out of their tour themselves.
It appeared England had to settle for a pyrrhic victory as the under-pressure trio appeared to avoid being officially suspended and instead vowed to clear their names from accusations that they manipulated the Lord's Test under instructions from alleged fixer Mazhar Majeed.
It is a compromise the ECB initially accepted because of their desire for the show to go on, starting in Cardiff on Sunday, but the ICC finally responded to pressure from the England players, the ECB and the cricket community.
It could well be that the sight of Wajid Hasan, the Pakistan High Commissioner to the UK, appearing on the steps of his embassy and vowing to clear his players' names was the last straw for an ICC anti-corruption unit which had been stung by criticism that a newspaper had achieved in two weeks what they had not been able to do in years.
The ICC 's code of conduct allows for a player to be provisionally suspended while under investigation as long as there is clear evidence of wrong-doing. It just seems it has taken longer than necessary for the ICC to accept that the News of the World evidence could not be clearer.
Butt, the captain who is alleged to be the ringleader of the scam, and Aamer and Asif, who are said to have deliberately bowled no-balls at Lord's, were never going to play in the limited overs matches against England once the evidence against them had been revealed.
But it was only when Pakistan tried to portray themselves as victims, with the backing of their board and government, did the affair take another twist.
The day's drama began when Yawar Saeed, the Pakistan manager, announced at Taunton that the accused trio would play no part in the rest of the tour but refused to say why. Significantly, he avoided using the word 'suspended'.
Then Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman and head of the ICC 's Pakistan Task Force, did his best not to look triumphant as he welcomed the move and vowed to play his part in 'taking cricket forward in Pakistan'.
Attention quickly switched to the Pakistan High Commission in London where the accused found a passionate supporter in Hasan.
'The players have said they are entirely innocent and on account of the mental torture that has deeply affected them they are just not in the right frame of mind to play,' he said.
'They are under interrogation so they have to defend themselves. They are not going to run away. We will go to a court of law to defend them.'
He even had the audacity to say that the players had been 'set up' and threatened legal action against the News of the World.
Back in Taunton, Pakistan looked like a team who had a cloud lifted from them in their warm-up match against Somerset, with 20-year-old Shahzaib Hasan hitting the first Pakistan century of their tour.
In the end, Somerset fell seven short of Pakistan's 264 all out. But the most significant action was taking place well away from the pitch. And last night came the best news of all.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-1308488/ICC-finally-tough-issue-life-ban-threat-alleged-Pakistan-spot-fixing.html