News Sports Cricket How England almost boycotted fourth ODI against Pakistan over match fixing

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


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.