England angrily reject bribery allegations

Pakistan were embroiled in a bitter new corruption row before play even began in the fourth one-day international against England at Lord's.

In a strongly worded statement, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) rejected an allegation of match-fixing in the third match on Friday which Pakistan won by 23 runs.

The allegation came from Pakistan Cricket Board Ijaz Butt in a television interview on Sunday in which he said "there is loud and clear talk in bookies' circles that some English players were paid enormous amounts of money to lose (Friday's) match".

Butt and other Pakistani officials had been angered by the International Cricket Council's (ICC) decision to investigate Pakistan's innings at the Oval after receiving information from a British newspaper about an allegedly suspicious scoring pattern.

Although Butt appeared to backtrack on Monday when he told BBC radio that he had no proof of any wrongdoing and was merely relaying information he had heard from bookmakers, the damage had been done.

A joint statement from the ECB and the England team confirmed the tour of England and Wales would continue with Monday's match and the final one-day international in Southampton on Wednesday.

But it called Butt's reported comments "wholly irresponsible and completely without foundation.

"Both the ECB and Team England view the comments made by Mr Butt as defamatory and not based in fact."

Speaking on behalf of his team, captain Andrew Strauss said there had been "strong misgivings" about proceeding with the series.

"We are deeply concerned and disappointed that our integrity as cricketers has been brought into question. We refute these allegations completely and will be working closely with the ECB to explore all legal options open to us," he said.