Pakistan management denies rape charge

The Pakistan team management has denied the rape allegation levelled at a team member, but the board has launched an investigation into the matter. The Australian has reported that the unnamed player accused of the crime denied it through his manager.

The board has asked Haroon Rashid, the team manager, for a report before it begins the investigation. Zakir Khan, the manager of cricket operations for the PCB, who was alerted to the allegation by his Australian counterpart, said, "The fact is nobody knows what is the real story," and admitted that they were baffled.

"I cannot say anything more until we get to the bottom of what has happened," said Zakir. "It has taken nearly three weeks for this woman or girl or whoever she is to come up with this. There is no police report and nothing else. We don't know what is the legal procedure, so we will definitely be consulting people, lawyers also, on how to tackle this situation if it is true. It's distressing for everyone."

The woman, who wanted anonymity, reported the matter to the Centre Against Sexual Assault, who informed Cricket Australia (CA) a while ago. A spokesperson for CA said that they had informed the Pakistan management of the allegations this late because the preparations for the tsunami relief game had been intense.

"We should have told the Pakistan team management and we didn't," said the spokesperson. "There's no excuse for that, although I should say that the last two weeks have been probably the most extraordinary two weeks in Australian cricket history in terms of what we've done and the outcome."

Bob Woolmer admitted that the team members were shocked when they heard the news. "There was stunned silence really. Everyone sort of looked at each other. Personally I don't think anyone in the dressing-room was involved.

"It's totally against Islamic law. It's totally against everything they believe in."