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Lahore, Sep 24 (ANI): The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has acknowledged receiving a pre-action letter from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA), demanding a ‘full and unreserved apology’ from PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt for alleging that the English players had thrown the third one-day international at the Oval for an “enormous” amount of cash.

“The PCB confirms that it has received a letter from English solicitors acting for those who represented England at the one-day international last Friday (September 17) in connection with statements said to have been made to the media by Mr Ijaz,” said a spokesman for the PCB.

“In this letter multiple demands have been raised. The board has instructed London lawyers, Addleshaw Goddard, to respond on its behalf to these demands,” the spokesman added.

The letter, sent on behalf of the England team, warned Ijaz that “if a satisfactory response was not received, legal proceedings will be commenced against him without further notice,” the Daily Times reported.

The ECB sent that letter following an interview given by Butt, where he had said, “There is loud and clear talk in bookie circle that some English players were paid enormous amounts of money to lose the match… No wonder there was total collapse of the English side.”

He had also accused certain ‘august cricket bodies’ of conspiring to defraud Pakistan and Pakistan cricket.

However, in a follow-up interview, he denied accusing England players, claiming that he had merely been relaying information from bookmakers relating to the fourth ODI at the Oval.

England captain Andrew Strauss had said his team was outraged by the allegations made by Butt. “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.” (ANI)