LONDON: A witness says large amounts of money discovered by police searching the rooms of two Pakistani cricketers in relation to alleged match-fixing could have come from legitimate payments made by the Pakistan Cricket Board.

PCB’s director of cricket operations Zakir Khan gave evidence via video link to London’s Southwark crown court on Thursday detailing the payments made to contracted players.

Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif, together with Pakistan team-mate Mohammed Aamir, are accused of conspiring with agent Mazhar Majeed to bowl deliberate no-balls in a test against England. Butt and Asif deny the charges.

Zakir says Butt was paid the equivalent of $34,000 by the PCB to reject offers from an unsanctioned Twenty20 league, alongside other earnings.