Three Pak Cricketers, Agent Jailed By London Court For Spot Fixing

London, Nov 3: Three Pakistan cricketers and an agent were sent to prison in Britain on Thursday for their involvement in one of the biggest fixing scandals to tarnish the sport.

Former captain Salman Butt received two and a half years, the longest term of the three players. Mohammad Asif was sentenced to 1 year, while 19-year-old Mohammad Amir will serve six months.

Agent Mazhar Majeed was sentenced to 2 years, 8 months. All four may be released for good behavior after serving half their terms.

The players were found guilty of conspiring with Majeed to bowl deliberate no-balls as part of a betting scam during the test match against England at Lord's last year.

Judge Jeremy Cooke told Southwark Crown Court that the offenses were "so serious that only a sentence of imprisonment will suffice to mark the nature of the crimes and to deter any other cricketer, agent or anyone else who considers corrupt activity of this kind."

"In Pakistan, where cricket is the national sport, the ordinary follower of the national team feels betrayed by your activities, as do your fellow countrymen in this country," Cooke said.

It's the biggest fixing scandal in cricket since South Africa captain Hanse Cronje was banned for life in 2000 for taking bribes from bookmakers.

The allegations originally surfaced after Majeed was recorded by an undercover reporter working for the now-defunct News of the World tabloid saying that the three Pakistan players had accepted money to fix betting markets.

Majeed was secretly filmed accepting 150,000 pounds ($242,000) in cash from the journalist.

Butt said he had ignored the requests from Majeed, his agent, and the 28-year-old Asif -- who reached No. 2 in the ICC's test bowling rankings the month before the Lord's test -- said he had only bowled the no-ball at precisely the time Majeed said it would be delivered because Butt had told him to run faster moments before bowling.

The 27-year-old Butt, Asif and Amir have already received lengthy suspensions from an International Cricket Council anti-corruption tribunal.

Butt was banned for 10 years, five of which are suspended, Amir was banned for five years and Asif was given a seven-year ban, with two suspended.

"'It's not cricket' was an adage," Cooke said Thursday. "It is the insidious effect of your actions on professional cricket and the followers of it which make the offenses 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."

"These offences, regardless of pleas, are so serious that only a sentence of imprisonment will suffice," Cooke told the convicted quartet here today.

PTI adds: Butt, who apparently corrupted his teammates, was called  the "orchestrator" of the scam that was revealed after a sting operation on Majeed by the now-defunct tabloid 'The News of the World' in August last year.

"It's clear you were the orchestrator of these matters. You had to be to make sure these two bowlers were bowling at the time of the fix," the judge stated.

To Asif, Cooke said: "Whilst no money was found in your possession, it's clear that you conspired to bowl a no-ball. There's no evidence on your part of prior fixing but it's hard to see that this could have been an isolated incident."

Butt and Asif were found guilty of conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to accept corrupt payments by a jury on Tuesday, while Majeed and Amir pleaded guilty at a pre-trial in September.

The cricketers, however, might have to serve just half of their sentences as they can be released on license if their behaviour is good.

The three players were also ordered to pay up the prosecution cost of the case. While Butt was asked to fork out 30,937 pounds, Asif and Amir were told to pay 8,120 and 9,389 pounds respectively.

“Now, when people look back at a surprising event in a game or a surprising result or ever in the future there are surprising results, followers of the game who have paid to watch cricket or who have watched cricket on TV will wonder whether there has been a fix or what they have watched was natural,” the judge said.

The trio entered the courtroom amid high drama as mediapersons jostled with laymen for seats in what was perhaps the biggest criminal trial involving cricketers and their sentencing ends a year of high drama which has left Pakistan cricket embarrassed.

The saga began in August last year when shocking footage of Majeed claiming that he could fix a Test match for USD one million came to light.

He claimed to have Butt, Asif and Amir on his payroll and revealed how the trio conspired to send down pre-determined no balls during the Lord's Test against England.  The hotel rooms of the cricketers were raided by the police after the sting and cash was recovered which the trio could not explain.

Butt was banned for 10 years, five of which were suspended, Asif for seven years, while Amir was suspended for five years by the International Cricket Council in earlier disciplinary action against the trio.

In the earlier match-fixing scams involving big names such as Hansie Cronje, Salim Malik and Mohammed Azharuddin, various judicial commissions had returned guilty verdicts but no cricketer had been criminally punished so far.  The only previous conviction of sportsmen in the UK courts for cheating came in 1964 when three footballers, including two from Sheffield Wednesday, were jailed for throwing games.

During the conviction, the Prosecutors had stated that Butt and Asif had been motivated by greed to “contaminate” a match watched by millions of people and “betray” their team, the Pakistan Cricket Board and the sport itself.  Prosecutor Aftab Jafferjee QC said the case “revealed a depressing tale of rampant corruption at the heart of international cricket.”