England, Pakistan set to clash

Stuart Broad said England are avoiding Pakistani cricketers ahead of their World Cup warm up clash.

DHAKA: England pace bowler Stuart Broad on Thursday said they are avoiding Pakistani cricketers ahead of their World Cup warm up clash, which will be first between two sides since spot-fixing scandal rocked world cricket.

Broad said the equation has changed after the spot-fixing saga although they shared a good relationship with Pakistani counterparts before.

Pakistan and England will lock horns Friday in last warm-up match of the World Cup, beginning Saturday here with the clash between hosts Bangladesh and India.

Test series between two countries last year was marred by spot-fixing allegations, which led to imposition of bans on the then Pakistan Test captain Salman Butt and pace duo of Mohammad Asif & Mohammad Aamer.

"We`ve not seen a huge amount of them in the hotel -- we`ve not been going out for dinner with them particularly," Broad told reporters. "Obviously it was a tough summer for us last year, all England players will say the same."

"We enjoyed playing the cricket, but off-the-field incidents did damage our wonderful summer of cricket. You`ve got to move on, it`s international sport. You`ve got a job to do to prepare for our World Cup campaign, that`s our sole focus. We have some points to prove after the last seven or eight games of our ODI form and it`s important we start that tomorrow (Friday)."

England play on the Netherlands, who beat England in 2009 World Twenty20, at Nagpur in their inaugural World Cup match on February 22.