Cricket: Pakistan are still coming, says Vaughan

New Zealand Cricket boss Justin Vaughan has rubbished as "absolutely incorrect" a report claiming his organisation was considering withdrawing its invitation for Pakistan to tour this summer.

Every since the balloon went up on Pakistan's ill-starred tour of England with fixing allegations last month - and culminating in a brawl between two opposing players before the fourth ODI at Lord's yesterday - Vaughan's line has been consistent: the 11-game tour of New Zealand from Boxing Day until early February will go ahead.

Two of the full International Cricket Council member nations, Sri Lanka and West Indies, could be lined up as replacements if either Pakistan were thrown out of the game by the ICC, or NZC decided to look elsewhere.

Both have spaces in their programme, but Vaughan remains adamant.

"We've got a tour scheduled from Pakistan and everything we are doing is aimed towards that," he said.

Vaughan said he had not approached either Sri Lanka or West Indies "and I don't plan on that in the near future".

He said countries did not withdraw tour invitations, as suggested by Britain's Sunday Times newspaper.

"You can't just do that, the way the Future Tours Programme is structured. It's not a process where you can say 'we'd rather have someone else'. It doesn't work that way."

Vaughan did admit to concerns at how the New Zealand public would view the Pakistanis, and how much interest there would be in watching games where a dark cloud is hovering over one of the participants.

However, he said NZC's research indicated that watching the country's leading players was a stronger motivator for crowds to turn up than seeing the visiting team.

That is a moot point, but Vaughan appreciated the damage the Pakistan-England series may have done to NZC.

"These recent reports haven't done us any favours," he said.

The current tour, with its relations strained between the teams, got physical yesterday. England batsman Jonathan Trott and Pakistan bowler Wahab Riaz grabbed each other round the throat in an expletive-laden exchange at the nets before the match.

Riaz is the latest Pakistani player to be questioned over spot-fixing allegations from the Lord's test last month, out of which three players, Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer, were suspended and sent home.

Reports said Trott had called out to Riaz "how much money are you going to make from the bookies?" Riaz offered a thought on Trott's family, and the pair were separated by former England captain Graham Gooch.

Match referee, former New Zealand skipper Jeff Crowe, sorted out the ruckus, which Pakistan's coach, the former fast bowling great Waqar Younis, described as "pretty bad".

England's greatest allrounder, Sir Ian Botham, waded in, insisting the ICC had to throw Pakistan out of the game.

"It's appalling and it's gone on too long. It needs stamping out. If you have a cancerous problem, you get to the root of it," he said.

The game went ahead only after England's team held a meeting to decide whether to take the field in response to comments from Pakistan Cricket Board boss Ijaz Butt.

Butt claimed England players were in cahoots with bookmakers to throw the third ODI at The Oval last weekend, which Pakistan won by 23 runs.

"We were outraged by the allegations and refute them completely," England captain Andrew Strauss said. "We will explore every avenue to ensure our names aren't sullied in that manner."

Yesterday, England, chasing 266 to clinch the five-game series, tumbled from 113 for none to 227 all out to lose the game by 38 runs. It raised the thought that had the positions been reversed whether Pakistan would have faced another investigation.

After the game the England team pointedly refused to appear on the field to shake their opponents' hands.

This most wretched of recent series ends with the deciding ODI in Southampton tomorrow.