Hameed denies match-rigging allegations

Pakistan test opener Yasir Hameed denied on Saturday he had told the British tabloid The News of the World that he had accused his teammates of fixing matches.

The Sunday newspaper has quoted Hameed as saying that some of his teammates were fixing “almost every match“.

“They were doing it (fixing) in almost every match. God knows what they were up to,” he is quoted as saying.

However Hameed, who played in the last two tests of the series against England, said he had never spoken to the newspaper.

“I have given no interview to this newspaper. So the question of my saying my teammates fix matches does not arise,” Hameed told Geo News in Karachi.

“I am deeply disturbed right now with this development. I am trying to speak to the Pakistan manager to tell him this is wrong.”

Pakistan team sources told Reuters that the News of the World statement had come as a shock to the players and officials who are already under pressure because of the inquiry into the spot-fixing betting allegations against the suspended trio of test captain Salman Butt and pace bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamir.

“The team is in a meeting right now and I can’t speak to you right now,” manager Yawar Saeed said from Cardiff, where Pakistan play England in a Twenty20 international on Sunday.

The sources said Pakistan High Commissioner, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, was also attending the meeting.