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 LAHORE: Pakistan cricket team returned home early Friday after a near three month long tour of England marred by fixing allegations. Coach Waqar Younis said it had been a difficult tour "on and off the field" as he and some fellow players arrived to a low-profile reception at the Allama Iqbal airport amid tight security. Pakistan lost both the Twenty20 matches and were defeated 3-1 in Tests and 3-2 in one-day matches by England. The one-day series against England finished on Wednesday. Test captain Salman Butt and bowlers Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif were provisionally suspended by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and questioned by British police over an alleged plot to bowl deliberate no-balls during last month's Test at Lord's. The trio returned home earlier this month. Pakistan arrived in England in late June to play a neutral venue series against Australia as their homeland has become a no-go area for international cricket since last year's armed attack on Sri Lanka's team bus in Lahore. They won both Twenty20 matches against Australia and squared the two-Test series 1-1. Waqar said the length of the tour had taken its toll. "If you take into account the tour to Sri Lanka before we went to England, it was four months on the trot and the tour of England was difficult both on and off the field," Waqar told reporters. Three weeks after the Lord's Test fixing allegations, Pakistan was embroiled in another scandal when British tabloid The Sun claimed it had tipped off the ICC about the pattern of Pakistan's scoring in the third one-day match at The Oval on September 17. The ICC launched another inquiry after the apparently accurate information from The Sun. Furious at the ICC's not sharing the information with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), its chairman Ijaz Butt alleged England players' involvement in match-fixing, a claim that hit the on-field relationship between the two teams badly. England batsman Jonathan Trott and Pakistan paceman Wahab Riaz had an altercation before the fourth match at Lord's on Monday. Riaz was also interrogated by Scotland Yard over his involvement in the Lord's Test fixing allegations. Waqar said the Australian part of the tour was successful but the series against England was marred by controversies. "We had successes against Australia which were pleasing, but because of the controversies it was tough against England because you need to do extra effort to gear the players when you see a report in the newspaper every other day," said Waqar. Pakistan's one-day captain Shahid Afridi and three other players were due to arrive in Karachi later. AGENCIES |