Pakistan trio face High Commission quiz

The Pakistan Cricket Board have taken the initiative in the quest to ascertain the guilt or otherwise of the players named in allegations of 'spot-fixing'.

Test captain Salman Butt and seamers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir will all be questioned in London today by PCB chairman Ijaz Butt and his country's high commissioner.

The PCB's decision to announce a unilateral, "internal" investigation follows three days of high-level crisis-management talks between them, the International Cricket Council and the England and Wales Cricket Board. Time is short, following the weekend's newspaper allegations that seamers Amir and Asif bowled no-balls to order during the Lord's Test - with the knowledge of Butt, and the intention of helping to defraud illegal bookmakers.

Croydon-based businessman Mazhar Majeed was subsequently arrested in connection with the matter but released without charge after 24 hours of interviews at Scotland Yard. All three players are in the Pakistan Twenty20 and one-day international squad, due to face England from Sunday onwards and to play in a warm-up match against Somerset in Taunton tomorrow.

But having travelled with their team-mates from London to Taunton on Monday, they stayed behind at the tourists' hotel on the outskirts of town while their colleagues practised at the County Ground yesterday afternoon. Multiple inquiries are ongoing, as Scotland Yard and the ICC continue their own investigations. Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the country's highest law enforcement agency, has also sent three investigators to the UK.

Reports have suggested other matches may have been fixed and up to 80 Tests could form part of the police investigation.

There was a fresh development yesterday when HM Revenue and Customs announced three more arrests have taken place. An HMRC statement read: "Three individuals were arrested on Sunday as part of an ongoing investigation into money laundering. This includes two 35-year-olds - a male and a female - from the Croydon area, and a 49-year-old male from the Wembley area. These individuals were arrested, questioned and have been bailed pending further investigation."

Wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal, the fourth player named in the press allegations, has not been summoned to the High Commission - and practised in Taunton yesterday.