The judge in cricket’s worst corruption scandal handed down custodial sentences on Thursday to three former Pakistan international cricketers and a cricket agent, saying they had betrayed fans and damaged the game’s image and integrity.
Mr Justice Cooke said the offences committed by former Pakistan cricket captain Salman Butt and fast bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, along with cricket agent Mazhar Majeed, demanded jail terms “to mark the nature of the crimes and to deter any other cricketer, agent or anyone else who considers corrupt activity of this kind”.
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Butt was jailed for 30 months, Asif for one year and Amir six months. Mr Majeed was given a jail term of two years and eight months.
They had been charged with conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to accept corrupt payments during Pakistan’s Test match against England at Lord’s in August 2010.
Imran Khan, former Pakistan captain-turned-politician who campaigns vigorously against widespread corruption in government, called the court’s judgment a “shameful day” for Pakistan, where the game is highly popular and a focus for powerful gambling syndicates
Butt and Asif were found guilty by a jury at Southwark crown court after a month-long trial. Mr Majeed and Amir pleaded guilty at a pre-trial hearing in September. They were all handed bans by the International Cricket Council, the game’s governing body, in February following its own investigation into the so-called spot-fixing scandal.
The two bowlers conspired with Butt to bowl no-balls deliberately during the match at pre-determined moments, as part of a betting scam set up by Mr Majeed. The conspiracy was arranged as part of a News of the World undercover investigation into cricket corruption, which filmed the agent accepting a deposit of £150,000 from the newspaper for arranging the conspiracy.
Mr Justice Cooke said: “’It’s not cricket’ was an adage. It is the insidious effect of your actions on professional cricket and the followers of it which make the offences so serious. 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 three of you as heroes and would have given their eye teeth to play at the levels and with the skill that you had.”
Cricket watchers would view past and future surprise results or moments in a game and “be led to wonder whether there has been a fix and whether what they have been watching is a genuine contest between bat and ball”, the judge said. “What ought to be honest sporting competition may not be such at all.”
Mr Justice Cooke told the cricketers that they had “let down all your supporters and all followers of the game”. He added: ”Your motive was greed, despite the high legitimate rewards available in earnings and prize money.”
He said the four would be released on licence after serving half their terms.
Mr Khan said the court’s verdict needed to be “a wake-up call” for Pakistan’s cricket authorities.
“The change in Pakistan cricket will come not by this conviction but by changing the entire system. Why should the president appoint the chairman?” he said. “We must set our house in order and anyone involved in corruption must be punished.”
Moin Khan, another former captain, said the Pakistan Cricket Board faced tough decisions on how the game was regulated if it was to avoid more embarrassment.
“Until we learn and introduce reforms and adopt a proper strategy such things will happen again,” he said.
The judge had some sympathy for Amir, aged 19, who he said came from a hard village background and was, compared with the others, “unsophisticated, uneducated and impressionable”. He had been “readily leant on by others”. He also noted Amir’s reference to threats made against him and his family and “the strength of the underworld influences who control unlawful betting abroad”.
But the judge pointed to evidence of Amir’s involvement in discussions to fix periods of play during last summer’s Test at the Oval.
The judge described Butt as the “orchestrator” of the Lord’s test no-ball activity, blaming the ex-captain for involving Amir in the corruption. Justice Cooke said Butt’s 10-year ban and Asif’s seven-year ban from the International Cricket Council enabled him to hand down a more lenient sentence.
Lawyers for Amir and Butt said they would appeal against their sentences.
Sir Ronnie Flanagan, who chairs the ICC’s anti-corruption and security unit, said on the governing body’s website: “I think it [corruption] is certainly not rampant in the world of cricket... I think it is engaged in by a tiny number of people. Sadly, I wouldn’t say the instances we have seen brought to justice are totally isolated either. They indicate we must be ever vigilant.”
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