Cricket: Pakistan match `was fixed'

JAVED BURKI, a former Pakistan captain, claimed yesterday that some of the country's players had been involved in match fixing and demanded they be banned.

"The main players against whom there are allegations should be banned from playing cricket and the rest of the team would then be all right," he told a commission in Karachi.

A judge in Pakistan is investigating an alleged match-fixing and betting scandal on the directive of the Pakistan government.

Burki, in a statement to the commission, specified one occasion in the 1990s when he said bowlers who had played brilliantly in Tests later gave away easy runs in a one-day match.

"Their bowling was short pitched and easy to hit. Such bowling was deliberate," Burki said. "The events suggest to me that some of the Pakistani players were involved in match fixing and betting."