Corridors of uncertainty

Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Fawad Alam and a few other players were getting ready to offer the namaz [prayers] before taking supper. They were in one of the inner corridors of the team hotel in suburban Taunton.

A few yards away a face stared at them from behind the glass doors. Salman Butt, the captain, was there on his own, getting ready to leave for London on Wednesday to appear before the Pakistan High Commissioner and the Metropolitan Police. The contrast couldn't have been starker.

The next few days will be the most difficult in the lives of Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif as the pressure to drop them from the remainder of the England series mounts. Though they were reportedly seen at dinner on Monday evening and then at breakfast on Tuesday morning, they were confined to their rooms.

They did not join the rest of the squad which trained for a few hours at Somerset's ground in the afternoon. Practice occurred behind locked gates to avoid any attention from both the media and fans. The county authorities said the request came from Pakistan. Yawar Saeed, Pakistan's manager, disagreed. "We haven't told them anything," Saeed told Cricinfo. "We are just going to have our regular training session."

It did not matter much because cricket has taken a back seat for Pakistan. Though the rest of the squad milled around, putting on a bold face, the players' eyes were wandering, and they were tense.

In the hotel the corridors were thick with an air of mystery. The security was watertight. The media were allowed in the hotel lobby and the TV camera crews were camped outside till late in the evening, but the hotel authorities had alerted everybody that if they were caught talking to the players they would be asked to leave. Every movement was monitored, like being back at school.

When a fan jumped in front of Yousuf and Shoaib to get a picture as the duo were entering the hotel lobby from the in-house leisure club, the Pakistan security officer got fidgety as the man was posing for longer than desired. The players were told not to entertain such requests.

In the days to come things will become even tighter, even though it is already bordering on suffocation. The freedom of the most talented yet mercurial breed in cricket is being restrained. It remains to be seen if Pakistan can stay resilient and patient before the rebuilding begins.