Pakistan will act on `bribes'

Pakistan cricket officials have promised to take swift action over allegations that Australian Test players were offered bribes to throw matches.

After a meeting yesterday with the International Cricket Council chief executive David Richards, Javed Burki, the chairman of the ad-hoc committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in Pakistan, said he would further investigate claims by Shane Warne and Tim May that they were among a number of Australian players who rejected approaches to "play badly" during the tour of Pakistan last year.

Richards said: "I have provided Mr Burki with a copy of the statements made by several Australian players after the 1994 tour of Pakistan.

"Mr Burki agreed that the allegations were most serious. He was confident that BCCP would take swift action on them.

"ICC's legal advice is that I am unable to reveal the contents of those statements, nor to comment on the identity of any person referred to therein. While there is an investigation in progress, ICC is not in a position to make any further public comment."

Allan Border claimed last week that he was offered a bribe on behalf of a Pakistani betting syndicate to allow England to win the fifth Ashes Test at Edgbaston in 1993.

The former Pakistan pace bowler, Safraz Nawaz, has also alleged that Pakistan's players were bribed prior to their one-day international defeat by England at Trent Bridge in 1992.

However, Intikhab Alam, the Pakistan manager and coach, has dismissed the allegations. He said: "I am a great believer that if you make allegations then you must have more than 100 per cent proof or some kind of evidence which shows the other party to be guilty. Everyone is saying these things, but no one is coming out with the truth."