Justice Malik Muhammad Qayyum said that the members of the cricket team were a national asset and if the accused players were innocent the ongoing inquiry would clear their names.

Sports Editor of The News, Lahore, Imtiaz Sipra, former captain Rameez Raja and members of the present team Saleem Malik, Ijaz Ahmad and Aqib Javed recorded their statements during the day. Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Khalid Mahmood and the board's legal adviser Ali Sabtain Fazli put questions to the players and assisted the court.

The court addressing Saleem Malik said that he and Wasim Akram needed that inquiry most because it would help them clear their names and they should be forthcoming in their statements.

Justice Qayyum said that Basit Ali in his camera statement had something which could make headlines in the newspapers.

The cricketers said that there were a lot of rumours about match fixing, players had accused each other on occasions but they did not have any positive evidence with them.

Mr Sipra categorically denied all allegations of match fixing about the playing and the former cricketers. He said that Wasim Akram and Saleem Malik were among the best players in the world and had won laurels for the country. He said that cricket was by chance and the mere fact that the players had not been able to live upto expectations on certain occasion did not prove that they were involved in betting.

He replied to specific allegations made against certain players and contended that on most occasions it was lack of understanding of the game on the part of those who levelled allegations of match fixing.

The sports journalist denied that any player had ever played irresponsibly or thrown away matches as alleged by a witness earlier. He said that he had toured with the team on a number of occasions and never felt that a player was not giving his best performance.

Regarding Ataur Rehman's statement that he was asked to bowl badly in a match in New Zealand in 1994, the journalist said that Pakistan had scored 145 runs in the match and it was inconceivable that in such a situation the outcome could have depended on Rehman's bowling. The match's result depended on Akram who, he said, bowled a good spell of six overs for 17 runs in the same match. He said that Ataur Rehman's bowling average was 43.92 runs and from this it could be inferred that the team did not depend on him for winning matches.

About the world cup match against India in Bangalore, the journalist said that everybody knew about Akram's injury before the start of the tournament. He said that the match was lost because of the failure of the middle order batsmen.

About the 1979 tour of India in which it was alleged that Asif Iqbal declared in the first innings of the last test match with malafide intentions when Pakistan was still behind India, he said that Asif Iqbal had played a lot of county cricket in England when it was a common practice to declare the first innings with the team still in deficit. This is done to get a result. Pakistan had lost the first two Test matches and Asif Iqbal took the only possible chance of salvaging some pride.

He submitted a list of the matches in which a team which was behind in the first innings or was forced to follow-on went on to win the match.

Mr Sipra said that there was nothing unusual about Wasim and Waqar not being able to contain the English batsmen in two one-day matches during the series of 1992 and 1996, when the team had won the test series. He said that Imran Khan once took 23 wickets against West Indies in the Test matches and later conceded 78 runs in nine overs in a one-day match.

He expressed doubt about the genuineness of allegations levelled by some Australian cricketers against the members of Pakistani team including Saleem Malik. The incident took place after the previous home series against Australia. He said that the ICC referee during the tour did not even hint at such a possibility in his affidavit.

Mr Sipra said that a Wisden report in 1996 carried very derogatory remarks about the country's judiciary. This report was published after Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G Ibrahim had exonerated Saleem Malik of the allegations made by the Australians.

Asked about the allegations levelled by former cricketer Sarfraz Nawaz, Mr Sipra said that the cricketer had once levelled allegations against Abdur Rehman Bukhatir and Javed Miandad and later apologized to both of them.

To a court's remarks that he was exonerating the team when his colleagues had made allegations against some of the players, Mr Sipra in reply referred to the remarks by an English journalist that Pakistani journalists in an effort to go one up on the other had demeaned their country in the process.

Former captain Rameez Raja said that he had no proof against any player. He was never contacted for the purpose of match fixing during his captainship. He said the rumours about match fixing started in the players dressing room which dented the image of the country.

Aqib Javed said that he had no personal knowledge about match fixing and that he had heard rumours. He said there have been instances when the players accused each other of betting and said that in Zimbabwe Rashid Latif and Basit Ali blamed captain Salim Malik of betting.

He said that real evidence was with bookies and he named Saleem Parvez. He said that his friend Naeem Gulzar also claims to be in possession of some evidence.

The fast bowler agreed that some players had got new cars after the tour of Sri Lanka in 1994. He said that one of these was Waqar Younis who returned the vehicle on his asking. He said he did not know who were the other three players.

He said that once a friend said that Wasim Akram had said that Aqib Javed would not play as long as he was the captain. This happened after Aqib received an anonymous call asking him to contact a bookie and receive a certain amount of money. He had refused to meet the bookie. However, he added, that he was included in the team during the captaincy of Akram.

Asked about the Bangalore match against India in which Wasim Akram did not play allegedly because the match had been fixed, Aqib said that Wasim had been complaining about the injury before even leaving for India.

Asked about the physio who is said to have cast doubt on the veracity of Akram's injury, Aqib said that he was an honest man.

Saleem Malik, who is one of the few players whose name has surfaced again and again in the inquiry, said the team won 76 per cent of the matches under his captainship. He denied allegations levelled against him.

The former captain denied that he took some days off to come to Lahore during the Sri Lanka tour of 1994 and met a bookie in the city. He said that PIA record would prove that he went to Islamabad where his son had received critical injuries.

Mr Malik denied that he had taken money to lose the Wills Cup final of 1994 between HBL and NBP. He said that his side scored 275 runs in the first innings and it was upto the bowlers to contain the other team's batsmen.

Regarding two run out incidents in which he is said to have got Inzamam-ul Haq and Saqlain Mushtaq out at crucial stages, Malik said that getting himself run-out was nothing new for Inzamam who 60 per cent of the time was out this way. About Saqlain Mushtaq, he said, in that match against India Pakistan needed 208 runs and it lost six wickets at the score of 50. Malik and Saqlain took the score to 180. Malik said that he could have got himself out at the same score if the match was to be lost. He got out when the team needed 25 runs in the last 5 overs. He said that he was caught at the third man and that no one could get himself deliberately out that way. He played the risky shot because the tailenders were not finding it easy to play on the difficult pitch.

Asked why the Australians blamed him, he said that Shane Warne could be holding a grudge against him because he had never been able to get him out. He said that he did not know why the other two players blamed him.

Ijaz Ahmad said that his name had come in the controversy because of his relationship with Saleem Malik. He said that he did not know whether Saleem was involved in betting or not.

He said that he was not present in the 1994 tour of Sri Lanka when a lot of rumours spread regarding betting. Asked about the necessity of taking oath on Quran before matches in South Africa during the triangular series, Ijaz said a lot was being written in Pakistani Press.

He said that he maintained a high average during the Zimbabwe tour and did not know why he was dropped from the team after it.

Further proceedings would be held on Oct 3 and Wasim Akram was one of those who had been summoned to record their statements.