In Pakistan, murmurs have already begun and if Wasim Akram and his men return without the World Cup, allegations will again surface.

A prominent member of the Pakistan parliament, Senator Iqbal Haider has warned the team that if they do not win, they will have to face prosecution. In a statement released to Pakistani media, the senator said that Pakistan had lost the match, but the top players won millions in foreign exchange. ``The top cricketers have no right to insult the people,'' he added.Haider said defeat at the hands of Bangladesh was a repetition of the drama the Pakistani team had staged in Sharjah as well. He recalled that in Sharjah also, Pakistan threw away two matches that were unimportant, but had minted thousands of millions in forex from thebookies. ``Something has been cooked up. Match-fixing or some dispute between the players. How the hell can we lose to such a team after defeating the West Indies, Australia and New Zealand?'' Haider said in disbelief. A former Pakistani Asian Games squash champion, and a keen cricketer, Zarak Jahan Khan has also pointed a finger at the Pakistani cricket team. ``It's not that I'm upset because my team lost. I am really mad because the better team lost and it was very obvious that they threw away the match deliberately,'' commented Zarak.``I used to hear people talking about cricketers fixing matches, but I never really believed it. But now I think I do,'' he lamented.

Zarak is the latest addition to the increasing army of former Pakistani fans now wondering whether they are supporting the right team. And the one man who is really enjoying the going is Aamer Sohail, Pakistan's discarded opener, who, along with former skipper Rashid Latif, is still trying to complete the jigsaw that can prove his allegationsof match-fixing and bribery against key national team members.

``The only thing which I would say now is that I don't have to say anything more,'' asserted Sohail when asked to comment on Pakistan's stunning loss. Former Test fast bowler Rashid Khan also smells something fishy. ``I still can't make out how we lost that match,'' he said.

Former Indian Test player Gursharan Singh is also not convinced that it was a natural game in which Bangladesh beat Pakistan. ``The way they threw their wickets, it was clear that the match was fixed,'' he said in clear terms.These accusations and allegations hold some truth because on the day the World Cup started, a supplement printed by the newspaper, The News, said that Pakistan would win by a big margin against the West Indies, but lose to Bangladesh. Two days into the start of the World Cup, The News on Sunday had expressed the doubt in its `Special Report' that either the match against Scotland or the one against Bangladesh would be lost. The paper had been tippedoff about this plan.

Wahid Khan, the cricket correspondent of The News, said from London that there were stray rumours that the bookies had to make up their losses in Sharjah -- incurred because they had been double dealt. ``The bookies had reportedly lost 40 crore in Pakistani rupees in Sharjah. The loss had to be made up. There is also an unestablished link between the ``unprecedented demise'' of one Hanif (Cadbury) Kodvavi in South Africa two weeks ago to the fact that this message was sent by one bookie to the team. ``Make sure we even out our losses or know what your fate shall be,'' says Wahid Khan.It is useless to state that bookies across the sub-continent had stopped taking bets and, therefore, how could big money have been made or lost? The fact of the matter is that betting is a legal activity in England and every ground has a tent where you can go and have a flutter even as the match progresses. Many fortunes were made and lost on Monday as both Ladbrokes and WIlliam Hill were offering odds of50-1 at the start of the tournament and after Bangladesh won against Scotland, 30-1 for Monday's game at Northampton.Khan, however, says the supposedly ``fixed'' game may not have been to ensure that the players received the money, but to make absolutely certain that the bookies made up their deficit. How long would it take for a syndicate to place its bets across England and recover its losses? Whether it was the players who made the money or the bookies, one thing is for sure. There was something odd about the match and if Pakistan fail to win, there will be a storm in the Cup.