Pakistan cricketers and agent jailed for no-balls scam

Former Pakistan cricket captain Salman Butt has been jailed for 30 months for his part in the conspiracy to bowl deliberate no-balls in last year's Test match against England.

 The charges related to the fourth Test between Pakistan and England at Lord's in August 2010

Former world number two Test bowler Mohammad Asif was jailed for one year and bowler Mohammad Amir has been sentenced to six months.
Cricket agent Mazhar Majeed was jailed for two years and eight months.
The BBC's James Pearce is tweeting live from Southwark Crown Court in London.
The judge, Mr Justice Cooke, said cricket matches would forever be tainted by the scandal.
He told the defendants: "'It's not cricket' was an adage. It is the insidious effect of your actions on professional cricket and the followers of it that 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 you as as heroes and would have given their eye teeth to play at the levels and with the skills that you had."
The three players have all been ordered to pay compensation towards prosecution costs.
Butt was ordered to pay £30,937, Amir £9,389 and Asif £8,120.
The men were arrested after the fourth Test between Pakistan and England in August 2010.
An undercover News of the World (NOTW) reporter paid Majeed £150,000 for details of the precise timing of three no-balls, which the players were persuaded to bowl, which were extremely valuable on the spot-fixing betting market.

Majeed claimed to have paid Asif £65,000, Butt £10,000 and Amir £2,500.
The judge told all the players they would be released on licence half way through their sentences if they behaved.
The trial heard that the cheating would never have been exposed without the investigative journalism of the NOTW.
The judge said: "Whenever people look back on a surprising event in a game or a surprising result, or whenever in the future there are surprising events or results, followers of the game who have paid good money to watch it live or watch it on television will be left to wonder whether there has been fixing and whether what they have been watching is a genuine contest between bat and ball."

Pakistan cricketers guilty of betting scam

Pakistan cricketers Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif have been found guilty of their part in a "spot-fixing" scam after a trial at Southwark Crown Court.

Former captain Butt, 27, and fast bowler Asif, 28, were both found guilty of conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to accept corrupt payments.
They plotted to deliberately bowl no-balls during a Lord's Test match against England last summer.
Another bowler, Mohammad Amir, admitted the charges prior to the trial.
The guilty pleas by the bowler, who was 18 when the scam took place, could not be reported before.
The jury was not told of these pleas.
BBC sport news correspondent James Pearce said all three are facing the real prospect of jail terms.
Conspiracy to accept corrupt payments carries a maximum prison term of seven years.
Our correspondent also said the case "raises serious questions about the integrity of Test cricket".
A statement was read out by Amir's lawyer at the start of the trial, before any evidence had been heard.

He said: "Mohammad Amir accepts full responsibility for deliberately bowling two no-balls and, in due course, you will hear how this vulnerable 18-year-old boy was subjected to extreme pressure from those on whom he should have been able to rely.

"He recognises the damage his actions have caused Pakistan cricket."
Spot-betting involves gamblers staking money on the minutiae of sporting encounters such as the exact timing of the first throw-in during a football match or, as in this case, when a no-ball will be bowled.
After deliberating for nearly 17 hours, the jury unanimously convicted Butt and Asif of conspiracy to cheat.
The jurors also found Butt guilty of conspiracy to accept corrupt payments by a majority of 10 to two.
Our correspondent said Butt's wife, Gul Hassan, had given birth to a baby boy one hour before he was found guilty.
The BBC's Aleem Maqbool, in Lahore, said the story was leading the national news in Pakistan and the four-week trial had been closely followed in the country.
The judge, Mr Justice Cooke, extended bail for Butt and Asif until sentencing later this week.

'Rampant corruption'
They were charged after a tabloid newspaper alleged they took bribes to bowl deliberate no-balls.
The court heard the players, along with fast bowler Mohammad Amir, conspired with UK-based sports agent Mazhar Majeed, 36, to fix parts of the Lord's Test last August.

Three intentional no-balls were delivered during the match between Pakistan and England from August 26 to 29 last year.

Prosecutors said 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.
Aftab Jafferjee QC, for the prosecution, said the case "revealed a depressing tale of rampant corruption at the heart of international cricket".
Former Pakistan cricket captain Asif Iqbal told BBC 5Live it was a "sad day for cricket" and said the case would send out a "huge message".
Angus Fraser, a former England fast bowler, said it could be a "watershed" for cricket.
"It shows young cricketers that there is a consequence to their behaviour. In the past players have been banned and then they have come back," he told BBC 5Live.
"The International Cricket Council has got to support the players, see these signs and help them out of predicaments, but also see (that) if players do commit these offences they are punished severely."

Pakistan cricket: Jury undecided on corruption verdict

The jury in the corruption trial of Pakistan cricketers Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif has retired for the day after failing to reach a verdict.

It comes after the judge said he would take majority verdicts because they could not reach unanimous decisions.
Mr Butt, 27, and Mr Asif, 28, deny conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to accept corrupt payments.
They are accused of plotting to bowl deliberate no-balls in last summer's Lord's Test against England.
The allegations came from an undercover reporter investigating match-fixing.
Prosecutors allege that Mr Butt, the former Pakistan captain, and bowler Mr Asif conspired with agent Mazhar Majeed and Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Amir, 19, to deliver three intentional no-balls during the Lord's Test between Pakistan and England from August 26 to 29 last year.
Jurors were told that Mr Majeed, 36, accepted £150,000 in cash, as part of an arrangement to rig games or aspects of games, from an undercover News of the World reporter.
The jury has heard that the agent told the undercover journalist that two no-balls would be bowled by Mr Amir and one by Mr Asif at pre-arranged points during the Lord's Test.

Wasim, Waqar, Ijaz and Moin involved in match-fixing: Majeed

 LONDON: A sports agent accused of taking bribes to fix matches said Pakistan's best known former players were involved in betting scams and that Australian cricketers were "the biggest" culprits, a London court heard on Monday.

Agent Mazhar Majeed, 36, told an undercover journalist match-fixing had been going on "for centuries" and named celebrated former Pakistan fast-bowlers Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis as alleged participants, the court heard.

Prosecutors allege that Majeed conspired with Pakistan's former Test captain Salman Butt, 27, and fast bowlers Mohammad Asif, 28, and Mohammad Amir, 19, to fix parts of the Lord's Test between England and Pakistan last August.

Butt and Asif, who are standing trial, deny conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to accept corrupt payments.

The jury at Southwark Crown Court was played covert recordings of meetings between the agent and former News of the World journalist Mazher Mahmood, who was posing as a rich Indian businessman organising a proposed cricket tournament in the United Arab Emirates.

Majeed met Mahmood at a west London restaurant on Aug. 18 last year the first day of Pakistan's Oval Test against England and, after the meal, discussed match-fixing in the undercover reporter's car, the court was told.

"It's been happening for centuries. It's been happening for years. Wasim, Waqar, Ijaz Ahmed, Moin Khan -- they all did it," Majeed said.

Salman Butt agreed to bat maiden over: prosecutor

LONDON: Former Pakistan cricket captain Salman Butt agreed to score no runs in an over during a Test match against England last year as part of a 'spot-fixing' scam, a court in London heard on Thursday.

Prosecutors said Butt, 26, confirmed in a telephone call with his agent a conversation recorded by an undercover journalist that he would bat out a maiden in the third Test at the Oval in August 2010.

Butt is on trial with fast bowler Mohammad Asif, 28, on charges of conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments, and conspiracy to cheat at gambling. They have both pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutor Aftab Jafferjee told Southwark Crown Court that Butt's agent Mazhar Majeed rang the journalist from the now-closed News of the World tabloid, after an earlier arrangement for no-balls to be bowled in exchange for 10,000 pounds ($15,500, 11,600 euros) fell through.

In what Jafferjee said was "potentially damning evidence concerning Salman Butt directly", a plan emerged for Butt to bat out a maiden in the first full over he faced.

The journalist said that could happen in any case and that he wanted proof, so Majeed called Butt on his other phone and put it on loudspeaker so the reporter could hear.

"You know the maiden we were doing in the first over?", Majeed said.
"
Yeah", Butt replied. Majeed then tried to get him to do another in his third over, but Butt did not want to, the jury heard.

The following day Majeed met the journalist, then texted Butt four times to remind him to tap the middle of the pitch after the second ball he faced as a signal that he would bat out that over.

Jafferjee said that that day, "as events transpired at The Oval, matters were somewhat out of Butt's control", as he had come in to bat earlier than expected, faced a new ball and had to take a single run.

The journalist had pressed Majeed on why the promise he had paid for had not materialised. Majeed explained and the reporter said he wanted a no-ball or something from Butt.

Majeed said he could have two 'brackets' for 150,000 pounds in the next Test at Lord's. A bracket is where bets are made on incidents during a certain period of play, for example 10 overs.

"As events would prove, he got a bit of both no-balls from Asif and Aamer which could not have taken place without Butt's complete involvement," Jafferjee said.

Young Pakistan bowler Mohammad Aamer and Majeed have also been charged with the same offences but are not standing trial alongside Butt and Asif.

Pakistan players face 'spot-fixing' trial

LONDON: Three Pakistan Test players go on trial in London on Tuesday charged with spot-fixing during a match against England last year, allegations which rocked the world of cricket.

Former captain Salman Butt, prodigal talent Mohammad Aamer and star bowler Mohammad Asif are due to appear at Southwark Crown Court charged with conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments, and conspiracy to cheat.

The players' agent Mazhar Majeed will go on trial alongside them charged with the same offences, which carry maximum sentences of seven years and two years in prison respectively.

The charges relate to allegations of deliberately bowling no-balls during England's fourth Test against Pakistan at Lord's in London in August 2010.

The allegations were made by the Rupert Murdoch-owned News of the World tabloid, which was closed down in July this year when it became engulfed in the phone hacking scandal.

At the time of the alleged offences, Butt, 26, was captain of Pakistan's Test side and had won plaudits for his leadership.

Asif, 28, was the team's senior pace bowler, while teenage left-arm swing bowler Aamer, 19, was regarded as one of the hottest properties in world cricket.

Majeed, from south London, is a sports agent with a history of working with Pakistan players.

Detectives raided the Pakistan team hotel in London as part of their investigations following the News of the World story.

The cricketers were outside Britain when summons were issued and they returned voluntarily.

A separate and independent International Cricket Council anti-corruption tribunal, sitting in Doha in February, banned the three players for a minimum of five years each.

Butt was banned for 10 years, with five suspended. Asif was banned for seven years, two of which were suspended, with Aamer handed a five-year penalty.

All three have filed appeals against their bans at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Mohammad Aamer pleads guilty in spot-fixing case

Pakistan’s fast-bowler Mohammad Aamer has pleaded guilty to spot-fixing in a London court.
During Pakistan’s tour of England in 2010, British tabloid “News of the World” accused then-captain Salman Butt, fast-bowler Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer of spot-fixing.
News of the World alleged they bowled no-balls at prearranged times during August’s fourth Test at Lord’s.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) had previously banned Amir from all forms of cricket for a period of five years while Asif was banned for seven years and Butt was handed a ten year ban.