Karachi: Imran Khan fears that the menace of spot-fixing in cricket could be a much more malignant problem than it is being perceived to be after the allegations and suspension of three Pakistan players.

Imran said in a television interview that he believed that spot-fixing/betting might be going on uninterrupted in many countries and was not just a problem confined to Pakistan cricket.

Salman Butt, Mohammed Asif and Mohammed Aamer are under suspension by the International Cricket Council after a British tabloid last week claimed that the players’ agent, Mazhar Majeed, had bribed the trio to do spot-fixing in the Lord’s Test against England.

Imran said that the ICC and other cricket authorities needed to carry out a thorough investigation into the matter.

“I still fear that there is no way to stop this problem of betting and spot fixing. How can anyone tell that something is wrong if a batsman plays a maiden over or if a bowler bowls a no-ball,” the cricketer-turned-politician said.

Imran pointed out that even in the present case, it was not the ICC anti-corruption and security unit that had unearthed the case, but it came to the fore because of the media. “We really don’t know the scale of this problem at the moment. There are only allegations against our players, but one thing I know, is that if Scotland Yard is involved, then they will reach a fair conclusion,” he said.

(PTI)