Pakistan cricket was dealt a damaging blow on Tuesday when its two star players, the former captain, Salman Butt, and fast bowler Mohammad Asif, were found guilty of “spot-fixing” by conspiring to deliberately bowl no-balls during a Test match against England at Lord's last summer.
A third cricketer, pace bowler Mohammad Amir, had already pleaded guilty but this could not be reported earlier because he was only 18 at the time. He would be sentenced along with the other two later this week.
The verdict came after an often dramatic four-week trial that saw some of the biggest names in Pakistan cricket, including those of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, dragged into controversy.
The former chief of the International Cricket Council, Ehsan Mani, called it a “very sad day” for cricket.
“This tells us that Pakistani cricket establishment has failed somewhere. It's a very sad day for cricket around the world,” he said.
The former Pakistan captain, Asif Iqbal, told BBC that the case would send out a “huge message.”
The players, the first international sportsmen to be convicted of on-field corruption in a U.K. court in many years, showed no emotion as they were convicted at London's Southwark Crown Court teeming with cricket fans and journalists from around the world.
Asif declined to comment as he emerged from the court and walked slowly through a line of cameramen and television crews. There was a wave of murmurs as news came that Butt's wife Gul Hassan had given birth to a baby boy just an hour before he was found guilty.
After deliberating for nearly 17 hours amid reports of deep divisions, the jury found both Butt (27) and Asif (28) guilty of conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to accept corrupt payments. The latter charge carries a maximum jail term of seven years.
The players will remain on bail until they are sentenced.
The case followed a sting operation by the now-defunct News of the World in the run-up to the England-Pakistan series here last year purporting to show that the three cricketers took money from their London-based agent Mazhar Majeed to “fix” parts of the Lord's Test.
The secretly-filmed footage showed Majeed accepting ?150,000 from the reporter and promising him that next day 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 denied the allegation claiming he had ignored Majeed's request. Asif, also denying any wrongdoing, claimed he ended up bowling a no-ball because Butt had told him to run faster moments before bowling.
Keywords: Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif, spot-fixing scandal
I wonder if current cricket laws prohibit a bowler to use a technique
to bold the batsman facing his balls. Let's suppose that the bowler
bowled 3 No balls for a batsman to lure him for High shot on the next
coming normal ball and batsman did hit him high and hard but the
stroke fell inches short of the boundary line resulting in an easy
catch by the fielder. Here he has got a wicket but the technique he
used was the no ball technique to lure his batsman for a high shot.
Irrespective of the fact the bowler delivered No ball consciously or
unconsciously, his intention was to trap the batsman out and send him
back to pavilion. if a bowler can design a strategy to bold his
batsman, his bowling may include wide balls, bouncers and No balls.
Such type of incidents dent the image of cricket again and again. These trio caught this time but there will be more players. It sounds stupid but cricketers need regular counselling.
It is sad for the cricket and cricket lovers... but it would serve as a great lesson to every cricketer playing or aspiring to play. All the three mentioned guilty players had lot to offer to cricket but they chose a different way which was not worthy. Great players attain startdon because of their own effort and the people with love for the game of cricket. It is unfortunate for the players or cricet fans not to see them playing anymore. One thing every player must remember is they get life only once and use it in a better way as for Cricket lovers and fans "If not YOU there are are many other aspirants who are always thriving to give their BEST." NO one individual is greater than the game itself. The game of cricket has made them great but NO one should ever think that they are greater than the game itself.
Watching the coverage of the spot fixing scandal on one of the TV channels, I was aghast to find a person of the eminence of Mr. Kishore Bhimani saying that these cricketers were foolish and stupid to have got caught while many others who did far worse things went away scot free. While one cannot disagree that many others did get away with less or no punishment at all, you cannot call Asif and Butt stupid or foolish on any count. They are grown up men who did something irresponsible, knowing very well what they were doing, for which they deserve exemplary punishment. Their action has brought shame to a nation which has produced such fine cricketers as Imran Khan and Javed Miandad. Mr. Bhimani should be careful while making such remarks since a lot a young cricketers watching the show should not conclude that it is ok to do all this as long as you dont get caught.
Poor pay structure might perhaps be one of the reasons for corrupt practices such as these among Pakistani Cricketers!
As an avid cricket watcher on TV I have always suspected of foul play. In tests for days they will not be able to take wickets and suddenly in a magic spell they will take all the wickets;ball tampering episode surfaced after a fortnight; a fast sprinter of a batsman will get run out suddenly for the easiest of runs; sitters will be dropped; lose balls bowled and now the NO ball finally trapped; Not to forget the shenanigans of umpires. Crass commercial Cricket my dear!
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