April 09, 2008	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 2, 1429

KARACHI, April 8: Shoaib Akhtar, Pakistan’s banned fast bowler, has been interviewed by the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU), team sources said on Tuesday.

The ICC and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) declined to comment on the development, which comes a week after Shoaib claimed in a TV interview to have several times been offered money to underperform but rejected them for the love of his country.

Col Nuruddin Khawaja, ACSU security officer in Pakistan, said only the ICC was authorised to comment while an ICC spokesman said: “We don’t comment on the activities of the ACUSU.”

Sources said an investigating officer interviewed Shoaib and some other players with the assistance of Khawaja. The officer arrived two days ago and would now submit a report to the ACSU.

Shoaib said in his TV interview that he got offers in South Africa and India and back in 2003 was offered bags of money but told the man to get out of his room.

His comments came one day after he was banned for five years by the PCB for several violations of discipline.He has filed an appeal against the ban which will be heard by a tribunal headed by a former Lahore High Court (LHC) judge.

Under the ICC Code of Conduct a player who fails to report an approach to fix games or underperform to his captain, team manager, board or the ACSU can be banned for one to five years.

Since banning Shoaib last week the PCB said he could face an ICC investigation over his claims, with Chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf saying Shoaib had never spoken to the board about his claims.

“I am more worried that besides him, again the name and image of Pakistan will be tarnished ... they will say that this is a Pakistani player who is alleging that the sordid thing of gambling and match-fixing has been going on and it relates somehow to Pakistan cricket,” Ashraf told a private TV channel.

The ICC said last week it had noted Shoaib’s claims about being offered bribes and wanted to talk to him because it has a zero-tolerance policy towards corruption in sport.—Reuters