Pakistan's Ijaz Butt refuses to apologise to England

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Embattled Pakistan cricket boss Ijaz Butt has refused to apologise for his suggestion that England fixed a match in the recent one-day series.

Butt has arrived at London for two days of meetings with lawyers.

Speaking at Heathrow Airport he refused to apologise and said he thought the matter would be settled in days.

Butt has been threatened with legal action in a letter from the England and Wales Cricket Board and the Professional Cricketers' Association.

"The Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman will meet his lawyers to discuss the apology and 'substantial damages' that England's players and the ECB have demanded," said Dan Roan, BBC News' sports correspondent.

"If no such apology is forthcoming in the next few days, Butt could face defamation proceedings."

The PCB chairman claimed he heard from bookmakers that England were paid to lose the third match of the series at the Oval on 17 September.

England strongly rejected the allegations and considered refusing to play in the next ODI of the series, with captain Andrew Strauss saying his men were "disappointed that our integrity has been brought into question".

Butt's claims came in the aftermath of allegations made against the Pakistan team.

Test captain Salman Butt and team-mates Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif were suspended by the International Cricket Council (ICC) after it was claimed they had deliberately conspired to bowl no-balls at pre-arranged intervals during the Lord's Test match in August.
And the ICC is also investigating allegations of "suspicious scoring patterns" by the visitors in the third ODI of a series England won 3-2.

The fall out from the claims also saw England batsman Jonathan Trott and Pakistan bowler Wahab Riaz involved in a spat prior to the fourth ODI at Lord's.

And on Monday tour manager Yawar Saeed resigned, the 75-year-old having been involved in managing the team since the 1970s.

Meanwhile, England's Ashes squad ended a five-day "bonding exercise" in Germany with a visit to the site of Dachau concentration camp, near Munich, where more than 40,000 people died from 1933 to 1945.

Andrew Strauss said: "Following our trip to Flanders last year, this was an opportunity for the players to spend time away from the cricketing environment, learn more about the wider world and develop ourselves both individually and collectively."

The team stayed near Nuremburg on their visit and were set various mental and physical challenges, as well as the Dachau visit.

England travel to Australia on 29 October, with the first of the five Test Ashes series starting in Brisbane on 25 November.