Pakistan keeper flees amid 'fixing' threats

LONDON (AP):

Pakistan wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider retired from international cricket yesterday and sought political asylum in Britain amid alleged threats from match-fixers.

Haider left the Pakistan team in Dubai on Monday and flew to London after claiming he had been offered money to lose matches against South Africa, the latest twist in the fixing scandals rocking the team.

The 24-year-old Haider would not identify who threatened him or the nature of the threats that prompted him to flee the team hotel in Dubai and travel to England without telling anyone.

"I was approached by one person who asked me to fix the fourth and fifth match and there would be problem for me if I did not do it," Haider told Pakistan's Geo Television.

"One man threatened me but I felt behind us there were two or three more men. I don't know who they were or who was the man who threatened me," he said. "That man said, 'Come into our circle and you will get a lot of money, but if you don't join us you will be in trouble'."

Haider scored the winning run in Friday's one-wicket win in the fourth one-day international in Dubai. South Africa won the fifth and decisive ODI on Monday and clinched the series 3-2.

"There is threat to me and my family. therefore, I am leaving international cricket," Haider said.

He did not say who was involved in the match-fixing and did not know the names of either the man who approached him or his backers.

"The country is like a mother and anyone who sells it cannot get anything in life," Haider said. "I did not want to sell my mother. I did not want to sell my country and I did what I thought was better."

Following Friday's match, Haider asked a Pakistan Cricket Board official for his passport, pretending that he needed it to buy a mobile-phone connection, and then left the hotel three days later to fly to London.

He said his decision to leave without telling team officials was to protect his safety.

"I was afraid if I spoke to them (team management) words could have gone out and I would have faced problems," he said.

Pakistan police beefed up security at his house in Lahore "to avoid any untoward incident", according to senior police official Sahahzada Salim.

"I cannot say what kind of threats I have received as my family is still in Pakistan," Haider said. "In the kind of situation I am passing through, I cannot trust anybody."

Seeking asylum

Haider arrived in London on Monday and, in an interview broadcast by Geo television yesterday, said he had applied for asylum.

"When I reached immigration, they said, as per the rules, you should have some sort of status for entry, some grounds," he said. "They have made me fill a form and taken a detailed interview."

Haider said he felt safer in England, for the time being, and would also seek to bring his family to the country.

"For the last eight to 10 years I have come here and I have feeling that here is a lot of respect for human rights and protection," he said. "I think it is better for me to live here. I have advised my family members to be patient and I will try to get them here too."

Haider's older brother, Raza, told The Associated Press that Zulqarnain was asked by UK immigration authorities to appear with a lawyer. He said the family was sending Zulqarnain money he received for playing in Pakistan's tour of England earlier this year.

British Home Office spokesman Simon Barrett said immigration policy did not allow him to comment on individual cases.