Agent Majeed gets 2 years and 8 months prison term
Three top Pakistani cricketers, the former cricket captain, Salman Butt; and “star” fast bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were on Thursday jailed for their role in “spot-fixing” during a Test match against England at the Lord's last summer.
“What a shame, I grew up worshipping them as my heroes,” sighed a young bystander as they were driven to the cells in the back of a police van after being handed down their sentences at London's Southwark Crown Court.
Butt (27) was jailed for two years and six months; Asif (28) for one year; and Mohammad Amir (19) for six months.
Amir, who was 18 at the time of the offence and had pleaded guilty before the trial, was sent to a young offenders' institution while his lawyers applied for bail.
The three were also ordered to pay compensation towards prosecution costs — Butt £30,937, Asif £8,120 and Amir £9,389.
Mazhar Majeed, their London-based agent and ringmaster, who claimed he paid them money to deliberately bowl no-balls at pre-determined intervals as part of an international betting scam, was sentenced to two years and eight months imprisonment.
Cricket “tainted”
Judge Jeremy Clarke told them that they had damaged the integrity of the great game of cricket and “tainted'' it forever. What they had done was “not cricket.”
“The image and integrity of what was once a game but is now a business is damaged in the eyes of all, including the many youngsters who regarded you as heroes and would have given their eye, teeth to play at the levels and with the skills that you had,” he said.
In the end, however, they got away lightly. The maximum sentence for the charges on which they were found guilty — conspiracy to accept corrupt payments — is seven years. They will serve only half their sentences if their behaviour is found good.
As the three were led away, Asif nodded to someone in the public gallery. The other two showed no emotion.
In a statement read to the court, Amir apologised and said he was put under pressure to cheat.
Besides the international media, a large crowd gathered outside the court to watch the last sordid act of the year-long saga that saw some of the biggest names in Pakistan cricket dragged into controversy. During the trial, there were also references to an unnamed “Indian contact” who wanted to invest money in the betting scam.
Sting operation
The case arose out of a sting operation by the now-defunct News of the World purporting to show that the three cricketers took money from Majeed to deliberately bowl no-balls.
The secretly-filmed footage showed Majeed accepting ? 1,50,000 from an undercover reporter. He promised that next day that Asif and Amir would deliver three no-balls at specific intervals which they did.
Butt's role allegedly was to make sure that his bowlers bowled the three no-balls.
Butt would appeal, his lawyer said.
Keywords: Spot-fixing trial, Pakistan cricket
Prompt legal action against such activities would hopefully discourage sports persons from the temptation of 'fixing' matches. Wish Indian Law Keeping Agencies had shown the same resolve as Britain ...Feel very sad for the very young, and talented Aamir. Coming from a modest background and seeing success+money at such a tender age, with the seniors (including captain) encouraging/pressurizing for the 'act', one can understandably cross the line (of course, not justifying his actions !). Hope, he comes out stronger, non-bitter from this experience, realizing that God is forgiving and often, gives us second chance(s).
The trio succumbed to the lure of money, possibly thinking that it was easy money for a not so serious blunder, they would commit on the cricket field. After all, they did not throw the match, by any means.They have been handed a life ban by ICC, which is a far more serious punishment .After all this, should they have been dragged to court and suffer another humiliation in the form of a jail sentence? After all, far more serious Economic offences went unpunished even in UK.
Would BCCI/Pawar or the Indian government allowed its players to be tried in a foreign soil and suffer this humiliation? Azhar and co were accused of throwing matches in Sharjah but they were punished by our board not even by courts.The shameless Pak Cricket board and its powers that be, allowed their subjects to be tried in a foreign land instead of putting their foot down against this humiliation.English law is quick to punish foreigners. Let our courts learn a bit from this trial.
Good job done by British court. I don't know, but this shows the travesty and bigotry of our Indian Judicial system, which had so many proofs against Ajmal Kasab, but taken more than 3 years in coming to any conclusion. Well, we are copying them (Britons), and there is a saying goes" Nakal ke liye bhi akal lagani hoti hai" (Need sense even for copying), i think we are missing that sense. I hope, this kind of harsh punishment will ensure that the great game of cricket be kept in high spirit.
Betting in Cricket has been going on for over two decades and Indians and Pakistanis are the biggest culprits in propagating this. We can end this menace by either legalizing sports betting or simply stop watching these games and save your time.
They wanted to make quick money and resorted to this unethical technique. The punishment could have been more severe had it been committed in the USA or the UK. They are cricket players who make more money in a year than their equivalent age group makes in decade and should not have been greedy. The punishment and fines are nothing compared to their crime of game fixing. They brought shame not only to themselves but also to the cricket world.
These greedy idiots made more money in a single day than majority of Pakistanis make after months of labouring. They have not only tainted the repute of the nation that supported them as heroes, but also left profound impact on the minds of hundreds of thousands of their admirers. The PCB shall separately take action against them. This punishment is nothing for them.
This scam having originally come to the surface by a sting operation conducted by the dubious, notorious News of The World is in itself suspicious. What is to prove the entire judicial proceeding was not influenced by that news organization? If they can bribe Army officials to get information about war veterans, they ought to be able to go low enough to dig up dirt or even create it, about anyone.Nobody in their right mind can believe that only these Pakistani cricketers are likely to be involved in a fairly big sized racket. After all, why is betting legal in the UK? The government too benefits by this "legal" activity, but when someone outside the puview of the government takes it in their own direction, it is time to clean house? Sounds like good old British hypocrisy to me. Let's not be naive enough to imagine there is no more to this than what meets the eye. If English cricketers were exposed, this would not have made news at all.
I used to follow cricket about 20 years ago very passionately. Then there was the Azharuddin episode. I totally lost interest in cricket and decided not to watch any matches in the future. Did not want to feel cheated and know that all those supposedly nail biting matches were fixed years later. I am happy about my decision. Not saying all the players are corrupt. No way. But there is always the possibility of a few bad apples given that there is so much money.
It is to much for Pakistani Players.it a very huge punishment their future has been demaged.Only fine punishment was enough. An appeal must be send by Pakistan Govermen toU.K government to wave of this punishment. UK government will have responisable If any thing happend.
Greed for quick and easy money is destroying every profession and eroding values.
Most annoying factor to me was their ages Butt (27), Asif (28) and Mohammad Amir (19)- this person is in his teenage. What a shame, we cannot able to say that "Cricket is gentle mans game" we have to re-write this to "Cricket is Match fixers game". Once the fame comes they are forgetting they identities, thats what we could see from these kind of traits. We have to ask all the questions to their parents instead to these 3, is it the way you moulded up your kid ? "Lets not cheat" - how long we will run by doing this?
The tainted cricketers who escaped jail terms: salim malik, mohammad azharuddin, hansie cronje, Ajay sharma, Ajay Jadeja...You may add the list..
When compared to what they have done, the sentenced pakistan cricketers have done little. Is the law equal? Reopen the cases and punish all those culprits.
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