A small but fiercely devoted coterie of Pakistan fans gave loud support to their team on a sun-drenched afternoon in the west of England on Thursday despite another bad news day for their troubled side.

Test captain Salman Butt and his opening bowlers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif, who are being investigated for alleged corruption, withdrew from the forthcoming one-day series against England. The trio said they were innocent.

“If they are guilty then they should be punished,” said Beenish Faridi in the interval of a one-day warmup match against Somerset at the county cricket ground in Taunton.

“But these are allegations only and you can’t blame the whole team. The whole team is suffering because of this

Tahira Tauseef added: “We are very disappointed but we have to support our team.”

Sheema Arshi said the fans had been looking forward in particular to watching Amir, the youngest bowler to take 50 test wickets and Pakistan’s man-of-the-series in the tests against England.

“We had been looking forward to this since April,” she said.

The supporters were unanimous in their sympathy for Amir.

“I have a 15-year-old son,” said one. “Amir is only three years older. It would be wrong to give him a life ban.”