Cricket: Ban cancerous Pakistan says Botham

England great Sir Ian Botham has called for Pakistan to be banned from international cricket following comments by Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt.

Butt has claimed there is a conspiracy against the Pakistan team after their tour of England has been dominated by match-fixing claims and the suspensions of Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir.

The PCB chairman has turned the tables on the hosts and accused England of match-fixing, following their third ODI loss to Pakistan.

The latest comments by Butt were too much for Botham who has labelled the Pakistan situation as 'cancerous'.

"I'd like to know how Ijaz Butt knows what the bookmakers are doing," Botham told Sky Sports News. "Maybe he should tell us something.

"I think it's appalling. I think the whole thing's appalling, I think it's farcical and this has gone on for too long now. It needs to be stamped out.

"If you have a cancerous problem you go to the root of it. Get to the root of it, even if it means giving guys an amnesty and saying: 'Come clean, tell us what happened then we'll move on'.

"Whether they have to serve a ban, that's for the ICC, but the ICC need to wake up. They need to get off their backsides. From what I can see they don't seem to be doing very much at all.

"We know this has been going on for a long time, let's sort it out."

Botham is adamant Pakistan should be banned from cricket until the match-fixing investigations are concluded.

"In my opinion, yes, simple as that," Botham said when asked by Sky News if Pakistan should be banned.

"We keep on sweeping things under the carpet and say 'oh well, it's unfortunate circumstances'. Enough is enough.

"The public pay their money to come and watch the game. What do they do when a catch goes down or somebody bowls a no ball? What are they thinking?

"Enough's enough."

Butt stood by the allegations on Monday he made previously when he suggested that the England players may have thrown Friday's match at The Oval, which Pakistan won by 23 runs for its first victory since the ICC suspended three team members.

"Currently there is a lot of talk by bookies that some England players were involved in losing the match to Pakistan," he said. "At one stage, five wickets fell for 17 runs."

Asked to provide proof or the names of bookies, he said "in due course of time, we will make it public."

Butt also accused the ICC of suspending Butt, Asif and Amir without proof.

"How have they come to this conclusion?" Butt said of the suspension.

"There has been no investigation. This is not fair. This is definitely a conspiracy against Pakistan cricket."

Butt went on to suggest that the motives behind the suspension may be to undermine Pakistan's chances in next year's World Cup.

"Half our team is destroyed," he said.

Pakistan squared the ODI series at 2-all this morning after winning the fourth ODI at Lord's by 38 runs.

- AP / NZ Herald online