Pakistan coach Waqar Younis Wednesday insisted the World Cup was clean and urged an end to talk about match-fixing in cricket. His comments come after Sri Lankan state TV channel ITN speculated over whether Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera may have "changed the game" by getting out cheaply in their team's defeat against Pakistan.
The station added a local businessman had placed an $18,000 bet on Sri Lanka losing the game. Sri Lanka's cricket authorities angrily denied the allegations and Jayawardene was considering legal action against the station for implying he was guilty of corruption, the BBC said.
Indian media also reported that Australia's slow start in their innings against Zimbabwe was "scrutinised by the International Cricket Council anti-corruption and security unit" - speculation laughed off by Australia's Brad Haddin. Asked how he felt now that Pakistan were of the limelight, Waqar said: "It feels great, but let's not talk about it. I think the games have been pretty fair, the entire tournament has been pretty clean, if you ask me.
"The teams who are better have won games and I think it's pretty clean. People talk about these things because nowadays it is on. I'm glad Pakistan is not in it, so good for us." Waqar said he was confident his team would keep up their winning momentum after beating Kenya and Sri Lanka in their first two matches. "Everyone knows the importance of the tournament, so I don't think there is any easy match or that any match will be taken lightly," said Waqar, whose team takes on Canada on Thursday.