The tourists have been receiving one bad news after another  since their fourth and final Test at Lord’s against England late last month and Thursday was no exception.

As the Pakistanis trained ahead of the opening ODI here this morning, news coming from Pakistan revealed that Wahab Riaz, the rookie fast bowler who is part of Pakistan’s 15-man squad for the five-match ODI series, is the fourth players allegedly involved in a spot-fixing’ scandal and will appear before Scotland Yard officers on Tuesday.

Wahab, who took a sensational five-wicket haul on his debut in the third Test at The Oval last month, was unlikely to play in Friday’s game but the latest development has added to Pakistan’s frustration.

“What can you do,” asked Shahid Afridi. “Our problems continue to get bigger every day,” sighed Pakistan’s one-day captain, who is hoping against hope to lift his team following two crushing Twenty20 International defeats in Cardiff on Sunday and Tuesday.

Pakistan were left without three of their key players – Test captain Salman Butt and fast bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir – when the trio were suspended by the ICC because of spot-fixing allegations against them.

The three players could be banned for life if found guilty. In addition, there are reports that the ICC is also investigating Kamran Akmal, Pakistan’s wicket-keeper for suspected links with match-fixers.

Not surprisingly, Pakistan failed to click in Cardiff and are facing the prospects of a 5-nil whitewash in the one-day series.

But Afridi is confident that his proud team will never allow it.

“I don’t think we should be talking about a whitewash,” he told Arab News. “We are still a good side and just need to get our confidence back. We can do that by winning a match and will try to give our best to achieve that result here tomorrow,” stressed the flamboyant allrounder.

Pakistan will go into the first ODI with a big question mark on the form of almost all of their batters.

Shahzaib Hasan has been unable to find many runs after hitting a brilliant hundred in a warm-up match against Somerset in Taunton last week.

Kamran Akmal has been in an awful form right through this tour though Afridi is hoping that he will shine in the coming matches. “Kami (Kamran) is an experienced player and I’m sure that he would soon be back in full flow.” Mohammad Hafeez and Fawad Alam, who joined the team after the Test series, have also failed to impress. Afridi said that his players should prove their worth.

“They’ve been given this excellent opportunity to prove their worth and should rise to the occasion,” he said.

Afridi, too, has been unable to score many runs but the skipper is confident that he would lead from the front in the ODI series. “I won’t let my team down,” he said.

Mohammad Yousuf, the team’s most experienced batsman, also flopped in Cardiff but Pakistan are hoping that he would regain his golden form in the forthcoming 50-over matches.

Tall paceman Mohammad Irfan and young batsman Asad Shafiq have joined Pakistan in Durham, giving the team management a bigger choice than it had for the Twenty20 games.