THE ENGLAND AND Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have demanded a full apology from the chairman of the Pakistani Cricket Board (PCB) over claims he made that England threw the two nations’ third ODI last Friday.

“We would like to express our surprise, dismay and outrage at the comments,” team captain Andrew Strauss said before yesterday’s fourth match at Lord’s. We refute these allegations completely and will be working with the ECB to explore all legal options open to us.

Butt had said that there was “loud and clear talk in the bookies circle that some English players were paid enormous amounts of money to lose the match” on Indian TV station NDTV after the weekend.

ECB chief David Collier added to the speculation that they will take Butt to court over his remarks: “we are looking for an apology. If it does not come we’ll look at other options.”

England had been rumoured to be considering not playing yesterday’s ODI, but Collier told BBC Sport that the ECB urged the players to fulfil the fixture. ”We felt it was important that the game went ahead. We conveyed that as a board to the players and the players were absolutely fantastic and really got behind that decision. We’ve had a game and that was in the best interests of world cricket, England cricket, the ICC and the world game.”

Butt, meanwhile, has said that he never accused England of throwing the match. “I have never said this. If you listen to the full tape of the NDTV interview, the bookies are saying this. I am not saying this.”