DOHA (Reuters) – Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt and fast bowlers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif were banned for at least five years yesterday after they were found guilty of corruption by an International Cricket Council (ICC) tribunal.
The 26-year-old Butt, who led the Pakistan team in last year’s Test series against England, was banned for 10 years, with five of them suspended, for his part in the spot-fixing scandal.
Asif, 28, was ruled out for seven years – two of which are suspended – while 18-year-old Amir was banned for five.
News of the punishment came a day after British prosecutors announced the trio would face criminal charges over their actions in the fourth cricket Test against England at Lord’s.
Michael Beloff, the lawyer who headed the tribunal, said the suspended parts of the sentence were dependent on the players committing no further breach of the code and attending an anti-corruption programme run by the Pakistan Cricket Board.
A three-man tribunal considered the case for six days last month following allegations in a British newspaper that the trio had arranged for deliberate no-balls to be delivered in the fourth Test at Lord’s last year.
All three can appeal to the Court of Arbitration for sport after the tribunal.
“I am very disappointed but we are hopeful we can appeal in 20 days’ time,” Amir’s lawyer Shahid Karim told reporters.
Corrupt payments
Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service said the trio, along with 35-year-old sports agent Mazhar Majeed from Croydon, England, had been charged with conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments and with conspiracy to cheat.
The trio denied spot-fixing, the offence of pre-arranging individual events within a match which may not affect the result.
An elegant left-handed batsman, Butt had been given the task of guiding a troubled Pakistan side out of turmoil when he was appointed captain last July for the second Test against Australia after Shahid Afridi quit the post abruptly.
He made an immediate impact by winning the Test, played at the neutral venue of Leeds in England, by three wickets but the subsequent series against England brought his 33-test match career to a premature halt. He had scored 1,889 runs with an average of 30.46.
Asif, who had made his debut in 2005, had taken 106 Test wickets in 23 matches at an average of 24.36, while Amir had been tipped to become one of the world’s best bowlers before he was suspended by the ICC after being caught up in the spot-fixing scandal.
During a prolific 2010 season, the teenager was named man-of-the-match for becoming the youngest player ever to take a five-wicket haul in England and also grabbed 19 scalps during the four-match series.
In a career spanning just 14 tests since his 2009 debut against Sri Lanka, Amir claimed 51 wickets.
