Cricket: Pakistan side could be badly weakened

Pakistan players await a third umpire decision during the second test against New Zealand last summer. Photo / Getty Images

Pakistan's tour of New Zealand later this year is still on; just what the composition of the visiting team will be is a far different matter.

The allegations of spot fixing which emerged during the fourth test against England at the weekend have thrown a dark shadow over Pakistani cricket.

However, New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan said it was too soon to speculate on how the tour to New Zealand would pan out.

The visit, the second in consecutive seasons by Pakistan, includes three T20s, two tests and six ODIs starting on Boxing Day.

Vaughan was reluctant to ponder what might lie ahead, preferring to wait and see the outcome of the International Cricket Council deliberations.

"A lot of it is hypothetical," he said yesterday. "We need to get this current matter dealt with quickly, so we know what we are dealing with."

If the ICC delivers hefty punishments for individuals it will clearly affect the chances of a full-strength Pakistan side coming to New Zealand. More than 80 international matches will be investigated by the ICC.

The three players squarely in the ICC sights over the no-ball scandal are captain Salman Butt and new ball kingpins Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir.

Remove them and Pakistan will have lost a trio of significant players.

"There will be certain scenarios which would be concerning," Vaughan said, without wanting tobe too specific.

"Until we get a conclusion out of the investigations that are ongoing, uncertainty is the worst place to be sitting in all this."

He had not spoken to New Zealand umpires Tony Hill or Billy Bowden, who should have been enjoying the first occasion a pair of umpires from this country had stood together in a Lord's test.

Instead, one of the most watched images in sport over the past couple of days has been Bowden, with his arm outstretched, signalling teenage star Amir's whopping no-ball in the third over of England's innings.

Controversy is nothing new to Pakistani cricket, but New Zealand Players' Association boss Heath Mills described the current firestorm as "a real wake-up call".

"Cricket needs to be aware of these sorts of issues and clearly we've often heard rumours and anecdotal comment around the Pakistan side in the last year or so."

Mills said no NZ players had been approached by bookmakers seeking to illegally affect international games.

"Under their contracts, if they get approached by third parties, like bookmakers, obviously they need to raise that with their governing body. We've had no one do that."

Vaughan, a former international player, described the situation as "just so disappointing".

"It's hard to see past these particular incidents to look at the game going on at the time. It was a keenly fought test series and all because of these no-balls all the attention gets dragged in different directions."

Among the spinoffs is that the spotlight will fall in other directions.

Any error a player makes could now become fair game for speculation.

"People do drop catches. But this doesn't allow people to make mistakes."

Amir, the floppy-haired 18-year-old left arm speedster, has already taken 51 test wickets. As Vaughan put it, "He's got all the makings of a superstar."

Vaughan is waiting for an advisory from the ICC. He has received no timeline for what lies ahead.