LONDON, England (AP) — It’s just not cricket.

Renowned for sportsmanship, good manners and genteel history, the sport got some unwanted attention worldwide yesterday when a sting operation by a British newspaper ended with police interviewing three players from the Pakistan national team over allegations of match-fixing.

This isn’t quite the Black Sox throwing the 1919 World Series, but the upshot is the same — a big-money sport followed by millions is plunged into scandal and self-analysis.

“Obviously, we are not delighted,” Pakistan team manager Yawar Saeed. “Allegations are only one thing. They are all serious, whether they are small or big.”

Cricket is the de facto national sport in Pakistan, India, Australia and elsewhere in the former British empire, where star players make millions and receive the same kind of treatment lavished on professional football or baseball players in the United States.

But the allegations in yesterday’s edition of the News of the World tabloid put the spotlight squarely on Lord’s, the 196-year-old stadium known as the home of cricket.

While there’s been no suggestion that Pakistan conspired to lose their match against England, Scotland Yard police have questioned two players over allegations that they accepted money from gamblers to deliberately bowl (or throw) no-balls — an illegal delivery that is the equivalent of a pitcher’s balk in baseball — at certain points during the match.

After all, bookmakers don’t simply take bets on the results of matches. They offer odds on just about everything — the number of catches in a game, the amount of time it lasts and, in this case, when bowlers will be penalised by the umpire for a foul throw.

The infractions had no effect on Pakistan’s worst ever five-day Test, but the suggestion of conspiracy is still anathema to the blazer-wearing custodians of the sport at the Marylebone Cricket Club — the body that formulated its rules in 1787 and still operates out of Lord’s.

“With these sorts of allegations,” England captain Andrew Strauss said, “you start questioning things you shouldn’t be questioning.”

The drama unfolded when the News of the World claimed to have secretly filmed undercover reporters, posing as front men for a East Asian gambling cartel, in discussion with a man it identified as London-based businessman Mazhar Majeed. He appears to accept £150,000 ($232,000) in order to make sure no-balls are bowled at certain times during the match.

The tabloid quoted Majeed as saying up to seven Pakistan players could be “bought”.

“I’ve been doing it with them for about 2 1/2 years and we’ve made masses of money,” Majeed reportedly told the tabloid.

Video of the meeting was posted on the newspaper’s website, and it appears to show the businessman accepting money and insisting that three no-balls “have been organised”.

Majeed was arrested as authorities began to investigate the claims, after players Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir appeared to overstep the line from which they must bowl behind exactly when Majeed said they would. The infractions were so clear that TV commentators — former England captain Mike Atherton and former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja — both highlighted the oversteps.

“I don’t see how they can get out of this one,” former England captain Michael Vaughan said on Twitter.