How England almost boycotted fourth ODI against Pakistan over match fixing

New Delhi: Former England captain Andrew Straus revealed that during the 2010 summer, the members were against playing fourth ODI against Pakistan after chairman of the Pakistani Cricket Board suggested in the media that the England team might have been match-fixing, so sudden was our collapse. Straus, in his autobiography “Driving Ambition,” has said that England have a long, chequered cricketing history with Pakistan, with on and off-field crises often overshadowing some excellent, competitive cricket. He says the whole series was overshadowed by the News of the World's spot-fixing revelations. Pakistan were understandably distracted by the ordeal and by all the speculation in the press about which other games might have been influenced. For us, everything just seemed too raw. Although the players involved in the no-ball saga at Lord's — Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Amir and Salman Butt — were not going to take part, trust between the two sides had completely broken down. According to Straus, “The 2010 series played out more or less as expected. We blew their inexperienced batting line-up apart in Nottingham and Birmingham, before their bowling attack got the better of us at The Oval, to leave the result of the series still up in the air by the time the two sides met in the fourth and final Test at Lord's. Little did anyone know that three days later, the result of the series would be the last thing on anyone's mind.” Former captain revealed that he aftermath of the scandal was long, drawn out and particularly painful. A five-match ODI series was scheduled and he didn't think that either side were comfortable about going ahead with the games. As the one-day series began, there was a frosty atmosphere between the two sets of players, tensions simmering away. Not surprisingly, it all came to the surface before the series finished. Andrew said that after a very professional start, when we won the first two games, including chasing down almost 300 at Headingley, we lost the third game at The Oval, where the Pakistanis outfoxed us with some excellent reverse-swing bowling. The problem came after that game, when the chairman of the Pakistani Cricket Board suggested in the media that the England team might have been match-fixing, so sudden was our collapse. Straus goes on to say imagine what sort of pandemonium would have broken loose if the ECB chairman, Giles Clarke, had accused Pakistan of match-fixing without any evidence. This was a step too far. Here we were, professionally continuing a series when many sides would have been unwilling to keep up the facade, only for the chairman of the PCB to question our integrity rather than addressing the very serious problem that had been uncovered in his team. Straus writes that after match fixing allegation by PCB chairman the feelings were high and, as captain, I was particularly galled at our integrity being called into question. The crisis was so serious that a meeting to discuss the matter was arranged between the players and Angus Porter, chief executive of the PCA, our union.. It was clear none of us had any stomach left to play the fourth ODI, scheduled for the next day at Lord's. Obviously, the ECB, with all the financial ramifications of cancellation at the forefront of their minds, were keen to finish the series. When I look back at it, I think this was one of the defining moments of my captaincy. A situation had developed very quickly in which the ECB and the players were sitting on different sides of the fence and the captain had to navigate a way through the mess. One thing I was absolutely certain about was that whatever we did, I wanted us to do it together, as a team. Although the overwhelming majority of the players felt that boycotting the game was the correct course of action, we invited Giles Clarke to come into the room and put forward the ECB's case. He sat in the room talking about the dangerous precedent that we might set, the potential damage to the political relations between Pakistan and England, as well as the duty we had to the thousands of supporters who would be turning up the next day. When he left the room we had a decision to make. I told the guys my own views had changed somewhat. The more I thought about it, the more I realised that boycotting the game would make us the news story, with people questioning our motives, rather than concentrating on the serious issues within the Pakistani cricket team. We put it to a vote, with everyone committing beforehand that, whatever the majority decision was, we would all do it together. The majority voted for playing the game. The crisis was over.