'Fixing' cash all 'allowances'- Butt

Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt has said thousands of pounds of cash discovered by police searches of his hotel room during spot-fixing inquiries was all part of his legitimate tour allowances. Butt and pacemen Mohammad Asif and Mohammed Aamer were all provisionally suspended by the International Cricket Council (ICC) following allegations resulting from a 'sting' operation conducted by Britain's News of the World newspaper that they'd all conspired in the bowling of deliberate no-balls as part of a betting scam during the fourth Test against England at Lord's in August.

There were subsequent newspaper accusations that police had discovered 15,000 pounds in marked notes in Butt's hotel room.

However Butt, in an excerpt of an interview at his Lahore home with Sky Sports due to be broadcast in full here on Monday, said: "Well I think everybody knows the PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board) pays us daily allowances on tours and it was a long tour.

"About 11,000 pounds of that money was from our daily allowances and being the captain I had an extra entertainment allowance which amounts to about 4,500 pounds from the tour, which I had with me." Butt's case, and that of Asif and Aamer, will be heard by a three-man panel chaired by English lawyer Michael Beloff, who heads the ICC's code of conduct commission, at a hearing in Doha, Qatar, next month.

LONDON, AFP