Butt agreed to bat maiden over, court hears

Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt agreed to bat a maiden over during a cricket test against England as part of a betting scam that may involve up to seven of the team’s players, prosecutors said Thursday.

Butt and teammates Mohammed Asif and Mohammed Amir are accused of receiving money to ensure no—balls were deliberately bowled at a specified time in the fourth test against England at Lord’s last year.

The case took a new twist on the second full day of the trial at London’s Southwark Crown Court when prosecutor Aftab Jafferjee claimed a tape recording showed that Butt agreed to score no runs in an over on the final day of the fifth test at The Oval.

The court heard that Butt didn’t end up batting the maiden over because he came to the crease earlier than expected.

An alleged conversation between Butt and his agent Mazhar Majeed, accused of being the middleman in the scam, was read to the jury.

“You know the maiden we were doing in the first over?” Majeed said. Butt allegedly replied- “Yeah,” before rejecting a request to bat another maiden in the third over.

“If not party to this corrupt agreement, you might expect Butt to say something to the effect of, ‘what are you talking about?’” Jafferjee said.

Jafferjee said Majeed is alleged to have told an undercover reporter working for News of the World, the British tabloid which revealed the scam, that he had four other Pakistan players working for him.

Majeed named the players as bowler Wahab Riaz, wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal, and batsmen Umar Akmal and Imran Farhat. Riaz was questioned by police that summer over allegations of spot fixing but wasn’t charged.

“These boys are going to be around for years, and I’ve got the best boys,” Majeed is alleged to have told the undercover reporter, who was posing as a rich Indian businessman who had paid 10,000 pounds ($15,300) to fix part of the match at The Oval.

Jafferjee told the court that Majeed said there had been a “little question mark” about Farhat’s potential involvement.

Majeed is alleged to have told the reporter that Butt was “1 million percent trustworthy.”

Butt and Asif deny fixing. Amir and Majeed aren’t required to appear in court.