Pakistan players to get legal aid if necessary

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's cricket chief on Tuesday promised legislators that players will get legal aid if they are summoned to Jamaica for questioning over the murder of coach Bob Woolmer, a senator said.   

Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Naseem Ashraf was also asked when he appeared before the senate committee for sports about the team's poor performance at the World Cup, where Pakistan were dumped out by Ireland.   

Senator Anwar Baig, a member of the committee, said "we asked the chairman why no legal assistance was provided to the players in Jamaica when they were facing the investigation."   

"Ashraf said the board will do it in future if required," Baig told reporters after the nearly two-hour hearing in Islamabad.   

Jamaican police questioned the whole team once and captain Inzamam-ul-Haq, caretaker coach Mushtaq Ahmed and manager Talat Ali twice after Woolmer's death. The squad also gave DNA samples and fingerprints.   

Ashraf said in an opening statement to the committee that if any player was required by Jamaican police for further investigations the PCB would provide him with full legal assistance, committee sources said.   

He also reiterated to the committee that no Pakistani players or officials were involved in the murder or in match-fixing. He added that if anyone had evidence about match-fixing it should be shared with the PCB and they would investigate it, along with the International Cricket Council, the sources said.   

Ashraf blamed the poor performance of the Pakistani players for their World Cup exit.   

Woolmer was found strangled in his hotel in Jamaica hours after Ireland's shock win over the highly-fancied Pakistanis, leading to suspicions that match-fixing gangs may have been involved.   

Vice captain Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf arrived in the southern port city of Karachi late on Monday, a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official said.   

Others, including Inzamam, are expected home from a stopover in London late Tuesday or early Wednesday, the official said. Pakistani police said they had taken security measures for the players in order to avoid any problems with angry fans on their return to their cricket-obsessed homeland.