CRICKET: Imran: `culprits should be hanged'

CRICKET

Imran Khan, the former Pakistan captain, has said that players who offer bribes should be jailed - or hanged - according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Imran's comments come in a week when Salim Malik, who has been accused of offering bribes to the Australian spinners, Shane Warne and Tim May, to throw a Test, was sacked as Pakistan skipper and given seven days to explain his conduct by the country's cricket authorities.

Imran said he had demanded tough action against players found guilty of attempted bribery when he appeared in front of Pakistani cricket authorities in Lahore.

"If anyone is guilty he should be kicked out of the team," he is quoted as saying. "The culprits should be sent to jail and should be given due punishment because whosoever disgraces the country has no right to represent it at international level.

"They should be hanged for disgracing the country."

Salim was sacked on Tuesday despite strenuously denying allegations that he had offered the Australian duo £33,000 each to lose the first Test in Karachi last September.