Missing cricketers planned to abscond

The disappearance of five members of an Indian women's cricket team, currently on a tour of England, may have been pre-arranged by their families, according to the team coach, Ravi Sharma.

The women, who are on three-week visas, went missing from their accommodation in Hounslow eight days ago and have failed to re-establish contact. "This is a bitter experience for me," Mr Sharma, 52, told London's Evening Standard. "I have been ringing the players' families in India to tell them that I've had to contact the police and they have asked me not to get the authorities involved."

"They started shouting at me. I believe the parents were involved and this is all part of an organised scheme for the players to stay in Britain for good. I think they are all part of this plan which we had no idea about until the girls vanished."

Police have confirmed the names of those missing as Mandeep Virk, 19, Baljeet Kaur, 22, Parvesh Rani, 25, Ekta Andotra, 21, and Rajwant Kaur, 24. It is believed the players may have been in contact with a "middle man" in England who arranged for them to sneak out of their rented accommodation last week.

The team captain, Renu Margreate, pleaded with the missing girls to make their whereabouts known. "We are very, very worried for you," she said. "You are spoiling it for the rest of us; you are going to ruin our futures if you don't come back."

"The five girls that are missing were particularly passionate about England," added their team-mate, Rashemi Sharma. "But we had absolutely no idea they had planned anything. They simply walked out of the house last week saying they were going to stay at another house nearby. We only realised afterwards that they had thrown their bags out of the windows."

"I've never had trouble like this with players before," confirmed Mr Sharma. "We are deeply distraught. The girls now think their futures in cricket are ruined. The five who have gone have wrecked it for all of us. Now it all makes sense when I think about how they used to talk with very strong feelings about coming to play cricket in England. Now I realise it was not just cricket they were interested in."