LONDON: The crisis surrounding Pakistan cricket deepened on Saturday when a teammate of the three players suspended on corruption charges reportedly claimed that players on his team had been fixing "almost every match."
The British News of the World tabloid newspaper said its Sunday edition will quote opening batsman Yasir Hameed as saying Pakistan players were throwing matches.
"They were doing it in almost every match," Yasir was quoted as saying. "God knows what they were up to. Scotland Yard was after them for ages."
"It makes me angry because I'm playing my best and they are trying to lose."
Yasir played in last week's fourth test against England, in which Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir are alleged to have deliberately bowled no-balls in conspiracy with bookmakers.
Yasir has not commented upon the report but Pakistan team manager Yawar Saeed told The Associated Press that the player denied speaking with the paper, which goes on sale the same day as Pakistan's first Twenty20 international against England.
"I have just spoken to Yasir and he did deny it," Saeed said. "I said 'if you have not said these things, why are they saying this?' Again he said 'I have not said it.'"
"That's all I can say. Let's wait and see what happens."
England and Wales Cricket board chairman Giles Clarke said on Saturday the match will go ahead despite the latest allegations.
The International Cricket Council suspended Asif, Amir and test captain Salman Butt this week while it investigates them for various offences under the sport's anti-corruption code.
The ICC is refusing to discuss the case or detail the charges, which followed a sting operation detailed in last week's News of the World that alleged that a middleman accepted payment in exchange for the deliberate no-balls in the match at Lord's - which Pakistan lost by an innings and 225 runs for its worst ever test defeat.
The ICC has called it the biggest fixing scandal to hit cricket for a decade.
The News of the World said its Sunday edition will claim that a fourth Pakistan player is being investigated by the ICC, but that he cannot be named for legal reasons.
The tabloid said Butt, Amir and Asif face a total of 23 charges from the ICC, and alleges that at least 10-thousand pounds (15,400 US Dollars) of marked bank notes it handed to a middleman in exchange for the no-balls has been recovered from Butt's locker.
The captain of Pakistan's limited overs teams has apologised to cricket fans for the controversy.
Shahid Afridi said Saturday that the players in the squad for the remaining two Twenty20 and five one-day matches against England were upset by the allegations.
Butt, Asif and Amir were released without criminal charge after being questioned by London police on Friday but could be banned from cricket for life if found guilty.
The Pakistan Cricket Board's legal adviser said Saturday that the trio have denied knowledge of any alleged wrongdoing by the middleman, agent Mazhar Majeed.
"The players have informed the police that the man was their agent, but they had no knowledge," about his alleged wrongdoing, Tafazzul Rizvi told private television channels in Pakistan.
The News of the World has accused Majeed of acting as a middleman, accepting money in exchange for getting Asif and Amir to bowl intentional no-balls.
The News of the World said that its Sunday edition will include proof that Pakistan High Commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan was mistaken in his assertion that the paper recorded Majeed discussing the timing of the no-balls after they were bowled on August 26th.
Hasan, Pakistan's top diplomat in Britain, has accused the ICC of bias for banning the players while police are still looking into the case.
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