“Dont Forget To Bookmark This Website” Pakistan are careful not to describe the UAE as home, but it could soon become one of their favourite destinations. They enjoyed a jubilant opening morning in the first Test against England in Dubai, claiming five wickets on a placid batting surface. After ten deliveries, Pakistan offspinner Saeed Ajmal [...]
“Dont Forget To Bookmark This Website” Salman Butt, the former Pakistan captain, has been sentenced to two years and six months in jail for his role in the spot-fixing case; Mohammad Asif has got a one-year jail sentence and Mohammad Amir six months. M azhar Majeed, the players’ agent, has been sentenced to two years [...]
The night before he was sentenced to six months in a juvenile correctional institute, Mohammed Amir called his family from England and asked them to pray for him. Amir’s brother Saleem told the media gathered outside the house that they hoped the sentence would not involve jail time. The phone call from their brother, though, [...]
Sentencing remarks of Justice Cooke in the spot-fixing trial involving Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Amir and Mazhar Majeed 1. The gravamen of the offences committed by all four of you is the corruption in which you engaged in a pastime, the very name of which used to be associated with fair dealing on the [...]
Pakistan are careful not to describe the UAE as home, but it could soon become
one of their favourite destinations. They enjoyed a jubilant opening morning in the first Test against England in Dubai, claiming five wickets on a placid batting surface.
After ten deliveries, Pakistan offspinner Saeed Ajmal had figures of 3-1, removing Andrew Strauss, Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen, the last to a DRS decision. He did not unveil his new mystery ball but he did not need it. To England, they were all mystery balls.
England’s first outing as the No. 1 ranked Test side began disastrously. They won the toss, the pace of the pitch was gentle, there was no swing or seam, and just a hint of turn. However, just about everything attempted by Pakistan’s impressive captain, Misbah-ul-Haq, came off as the cream of England batting disappeared in the first two hours.
There had been concerns about how England, who moved to No. 1 with high-adrenalin performances in front of packed crowds, would respond to the dead air of a virtually empty stadium, and those doubts were not lessened. Mohammad Hafeez’s offspin was introduced in the sixth over to counter England’s left-hand openers and he dismissed Alastair Cook in his first over. Cook, who had been so productive against fast bowling in Australia this time last year, looked tentative against spin. He attempted to work his first ball into the leg side and got a thick outside edge through point. Then Hafeez found gentle turn with his third delivery and Cook edged obligingly to the wicketkeeper.
Pakistan had opted for three spinners; England stuck to their successful formula of Graeme Swann’s offspin supported by three fast bowlers. It was not long before England looked in denial.
Jonathan Trott was the one batsman to fall to pace, the bustling pace provided by Aizaz Cheema, whose belated introduction into Test cricket after a decade of being overlooked at first-class level, is proving a revelation.
Cheema’s opening spell was curtailed to two overs, but Trott found him a handful on his return. A walking clip to the square-leg boundary represented England’s most authoritative moment of the session, but edged boundaries off successive balls were less impressive, the second of them flying just over leg stump off the inside edge.
Trott fell in Cheema’s next over, strangled down the leg side as the bowler banged one in short of a length. Trott paused, as though wondering whether he might escape with a review, then sensibly thought better of it; it was an obvious deflection.
Misbah taunted Pietersen with left-arm spin, his nemesis, in the shape of Abdur Rehman, but Pietersen, thrusting well forward, survived, only for Ajmal to bring about a remarkable transformation. England regard him as their greatest challenge and that feeling grew stronger as Strauss, Bell and Pietersen all departed.
Strauss had batted 42 balls for 19 when he misread the length, tried to pull a ball that was too far up to him, and was bowled.
Bell came in with his wrist heavily strapped, courtesy of a blow in the nets the previous day while batting against the dog thrower used by the England batting coach, Graham Gooch. He was met by a perfect doosra from Ajmal, which he edged to give the bowler his third wicket of the morning. Bell did not appear to read it but, first ball at the start of a new series, reading anything is a demanding task.
Bell then departed for a long conversation with Gooch, who exchanged dog thrower for any bone of consolation that he could toss his way.
Three balls later, Ajmal struck for a third time. Pietersen played slightly across and was hit on the front pad, just outside the crease. Bruce Oxenford, the Australian umpire, was unconvinced but the wicketkeeper gestured excitedly for the DRS. His judgment was well founded, the replay suggesting that the ball would have struck halfway up leg stump. Pakistan’s jubilation was complete.
Salman Butt, the former Pakistan captain, has been sentenced to two years and six months in jail for his role in the spot-fixing case; Mohammad Asif has got a one-year jail sentence and Mohammad Amir six months. M
azhar Majeed, the players’ agent, has been sentenced to two years and eight months.
The sentences were handed down in Souhwark Crown Court on
The incarceration will begin immediately, with the players – who had all come to court with bags – due to be led into prison straight from the courtroom. It seems, in Amir’s case, that he will be sent to a young offenders’ detention centre instead of jail. Thursday morning, bringing the curtains down on one of sport’s most sordid and shameful scandals. The sentences are open to appeal and can be reduced to half the term for good behaviour.
The sentences are open to appeal and Butt’s solicitor Paul Harris said they would be doing so in the next 24 hours.
The PCB called it a “sad day” for Pakistan cricket. “Instead of having pride in playing for their country, these players chose to disappoint their supporters, damage the image of their country and bring the noble game of cricket into disrepute. There is little sympathy in Pakistan for the sorry pass they have come to.”
In Lahore, the families of the convicted players were stunned by the sentences. Amir’s father said the Pakistan government should have helped his son. His brother Saleem said: “He is a kid, he can’t understand things. These six months are a lot for a boy who is immature.”
Butt’s father Zulfiqar was more aggressive, saying his son was innocent. “Our own friends conspired against us,” he said. “You can check our bank balance, we haven’t even been able to build our own house.”
The judge began proceedings with his summation of the case of each of the four found guilty, reading out their sentences one at a time, and his initial words suggested jail terms for all four guilty.
“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.”
“It’s clear you were the orchestrator of these matters,” Justice Cooke told Butt. “You had to be to make sure these two bowlers were bowling at the time of the fix.”
To Asif he 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.”
There were frantic scenes in and around courtroom number four on Thursday morning at Southwark Crown Court, as media and members of the public crammed to witness the sentencing.
The guilty entered the court last after a crazy scrummage for seats by media workers and public. Even regular court reporters commented that they had not seen such desperation in court to be present for sentencing of a trial.
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. It all followed the now infamous three pre-determined no-balls that were delivered in the Lord’s Test match last year, two by Amir and one by Asif, orchestrated by Butt and arranged by Majeed.
The night before he was sentenced to six months in a juvenile correctional institute, Mohammed Amir called his family from England and asked them to pray
for him. Amir’s brother Saleem told the media gathered outside the house that they hoped the sentence would not involve jail time. The phone call from their brother, though, had become an intimation of what was about to happen in less than 24 hours. “The entire family prayed all night,” one of Amir’s sisters told ESPNcricinfo, “trying not to think the worst thoughts.”
Amir and Butt’s families spent all day watching the news on television. Once the verdict was announced Amir’s father broke down outside the family bungalow in Lahore’s Defence neighbourhood and was unable to speak. Amir’s brother Saleem consoled him and called on the Pakistani government to help in the case. “Amir is a kid, he can’t understand things. These six months are a lot for an immature kid.” Amir’s mother was not in Lahore at the time of the sentencing but in the family’s old home in Gujjar Khan near Rawalpindi. Amir’s sister said he had spoken to the family before being sentenced to six months in Feltham Young Offenders’ Institute.
Salman Butt’s family, which should have been celebrating the birth of his second child, responded angrily to his two-and-a half year sentence. Butt’s businessman father Zulfiqar said he would soon be calling a press conference to “reveal” some hidden facts. “A lot of things have remained secret … My son is innocent,” he said. “Our own friends conspired against us.” Zulfiqar did not identify these friends or explain the conspiracy but added that the Butt family was not wealthy. “You can check our bank balance. We weren’t even able to build our own house.”
Butt’s two sisters Khadija and Rubab spoke to reporters outside their home in the fairly comfortable Johar Town area, about 10kms south-west of the Gaddafi Stadium. Khadija said: “We know our brother is innocent and we firmly believe that. Right from the start, and through the past 14 months, he didn’t make one deviation from his first statement.” She said the family was not able to speak to Butt before he was led away to holding cells under the Southwark Crown Court and on to Wandsworth prison. “We know Salman has been praying all night yesterday. His mistake was to be at the wrong place with the wrong people. This is his only mistake.” Rubab’s wedding has now been postponed.
Mohammed Asif’s family is still based in his hometown of Sheikhupura, north of Lahore. His father, Hasan Deen, a dairy farmer, had spoken to reporters after Tuesday’s verdict. When asked about the possibility of a jail sentence for his son, Hasan Deen said: “It is human beings after all who go to jail. He hasn’t committed a murder. We haven’t made any great money from cricket. I know Asif will return home one day.”
Sentencing remarks of Justice Cooke in the spot-fixing trial involving Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Amir and Mazhar Majeed
1. The gravamen of the offences committed by all four of you is the corruption in which you engaged in a pastime, the very name of which used to be associated with fair dealing on the sporting field. It’s not cricketwas 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. You procured the bowling of 3 no balls for money, to the detriment of your national cricket team, with the object of enabling others to cheat at gambling. Now, 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 to watch it on TV, in the shape of licence money or TV subscriptions, will 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. What ought to be honest sporting competition may not be such at all.
2. 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. You Butt, Asif and Amir have let down all your supporters and all followers of the game, whether suborned by you, Majeed, or more than willing co- conspirators. Whilst those involved in unlawful betting in this country where the market is regulated, may not deserve much sympathy, and the evidence was that betting on no balls only occurred in unlawful markets, mostly abroad, where betting on cricket may not be allowed at all, the effect of what you were seeking to do was to defraud bookmakers, whether licensed or unlicensed and whether carrying out lawful or unlawful bookmaking in the country in question, where public policy may differ from this country. If other fixes were to be done on less esoteric events than no balls, such as brackets, then it is certain that they would affect lawful betting. Your motive was greed, despite the high legitimate rewards available in earnings and prize money.
3. I bear in mind that this was a sting by the News Of The World (NOTW), but that does not render your culpability any the less, once it is recognised that you were involved in discussing such activities outside the scope of the sting, as it is clear that you Majeed, Butt and Amir were. Though no cheating bets were placed by reason of the information given to the journalist, the intention was that they should be and if information was supplied to others, as it was, that could only have been for one purpose.
4. These offences, regardless of pleas, are 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, with its hugely detrimental impact on the lives of many who look to find good honest entertainment and good-hearted enjoyment from following an honest, albeit professional sport.
Mazhar Majeed
5. You have pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy:
5.1. first – conspiracy corruptly to give Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammed Amir money as an inducement to identify in advance occasions
during the Test Match series between Pakistan and England when they would play in a specified manner.
5.2. Secondly – conspiracy to do acts to enable others to cheat at gambling by identifying those occasions to others including the NOTW journalist so that those individuals you thought were part of his betting syndicate could win money by betting on the occurrence of those events.
6. In your basis of plea, you asserted that your actions related solely to the arrangement of the bowling of no balls and that some of what you said to the journalist with regard to previous spot or match fixing was untrue and merely designed to impress him and attract his confidence. I refused to accept that basis of plea.
7. In consequence I gave you the opportunity to give evidence in a Newton hearing on these issues, but you have since accepted that your part in the conspiracy covered not just the no balls actually bowled at Lords but wider events at Lords and the Oval.
8. Whilst others have described you as a blagger and your own counsel now says, along with other defendants, that much of what you said to the Journalist is not to be believed, the fact remains that, in your meetings with him, you spoke of your involvement in spot fixing and match fixing and of the players you managed in the Pakistan team and your ability to use the three players before me in such activities, naming others also who are not before the court. You said it had been going on for years. The fact that of the £150,000 that you actually received, only £2500 in marked notes was found in Butt’s possession and £1500 in Amir’s possession, together with the evidence of payment of £13,000 into Butt’s bank account and some £23,000 into your company’s accounts, suggests that you took the lion’s share of the cash paid by the journalist, notwithstanding what, through your counsel, you have now said about its distribution. Moreover, what the court has mostly been concerned with here- the arrangement of three no balls- is only part of the corrupt activities in which you have been involved.
9. On the evidence, you were not only responsible for arranging with Salman Butt, and directly or indirectly with Amir and Asif, for the 3 specified no balls in the Lord’s test which were actually bowled, (2 on the 26th and one on the 27th August2011 but you also agreed with Salman Butt:
9.1. for Salman Butt to bat out a maiden over at the Oval test match on 21 August on the first full over that he faced that day
9.2. for a second no ball to be bowled by Amir on 26th August, when he was first to bowl round the wicket, which did not occur that day, and was then replaced by agreement that evening by the no ball actually bowled by him on the third ball of the third full over that he bowled on 27 August . You agreed this with Salman Butt and either directly or indirectly with Amir.
10. You told the journalist that you had been fixing things with the Pakistani team for about two and a half years, though your counsel now says that the suggestion of spot fixing first came up in June 2009. I can give little credence to anything said by your counsel on your instructions to this court and approach what you said to the Journalist with more than a pinch of sale, as it was sales talk to gain his confidence to part with money, of which you were short at the time.
11. What is clear however is that you were involved in fixing not only with the journalist but with others during the period covered by the Indictment. Whether or not what this court has had to consider is just the tip of an iceberg, is not for me to say and lies beyond the scope of the evidence I have heard, but, even allowing for your “sales talk” to the journalist, I am sure that there was an element of truth in what you said about past fixing.
11.1. You were paid £150,000 for information given and to be given in the future.
11.2. It was agreed that the journalist would pay you £10,000 for each no ball identified to him in advance – or at least £20,000 for 3 no balls, of which he paid £10,000. Bets could be placed on these no balls in unlawful markets, mostly abroad, based on inside advance knowledge of what was going to happen.
11.3. It was agreed that he would pay £150,000 as a deposit (of which he paid £140,000) from which you would draw down for information to be given to him in respect of brackets – the number of runs to be scored or wickets taken (or rather runs or wickets given away) in a specified number of overs and information about the scoring rate involved, on which bets could be placed, in both lawful and unlawful markets.
11.4. It is clear from the telephone schedules that you were in touch with contacts in India and Dubai and were passing on information relating to the Oval and Lord’s test matches in relation to gambling activity there. I find that this was all part of your corrupt activity because you were intent on passing the same information about fixed events to different people so they could place bets based on them in different markets- Dubai, India, and as you thought, the Far East where the journalist said his punters were involved. There is evidence of a telephone call, conducted in the presence of the journalist where there was discussion of $1m changing hands. You told the journalist that it would cost £50-80,000 to fix a bracket, £400,000 to fix a 20/20 match result, anything between £300,000-£450,000 to fix a one day international and £1m to fix a test match. The fact that you could talk in these terms to someone who was, as you thought, prepared to put up that sort of money, lends credence to your knowledge or involvement in matters of that kind and your confidence in your ability to do so for him. You were not seeking simply to con him out of money but to start a long term corrupt relationship with future exchanges of money for information given, in the same way as you must have made arrangements with your Dubai and Indian contacts. On your say-so, individuals in India were making £40,000-£50,000 on each identified no ball. On three no balls therefore the bookmakers stood to lose £150,000 on each bet by a cheating punter.
12. Your position as manager to half a dozen members of the Pakistan team and your close friendship with Salman Butt, who became the captain on July 16th 2010, meant that you and he together were in a position to influence other players in the team as you did. Whereas the defendant players present have already been the subject of an ICC arbitration and have suffered bans which significantly affect their cricket playing careers and their future earnings, which I will bear in mind when I come to sentence them, you stand alone as a non player, who decided, according to an email exchange with your brother in February 2010, to make as much money as you could from the game of cricket- by corrupting those involved.
13. I take into account everything said on your behalf and the character references produced which speak well of you as a good family man and a man who has made significant contributions to your local community.
14. You were agent of the players and to that extent were trusted by them, and obtained for them legitimate contracts of sponsorship as well as being the source of illegitimate earnings for them. It was through Salman Butt that your influence over them was largely gained and you and he were the architects of the fixing of which the court has heard, procuring the other two defendants to do what they did.
15. I give you full credit for your plea, which the Prosecution accepts was entered at the first effective opportunity.
16. I have considered the guidelines for any analogous offences such as fraud on insurers and the sums of money involved here. You, of the four defendants, gained the most from these offences-it would appear, well over £100,000, quite apart from the $1m referred to in the phone call, which may or may not ever have materialised. Notional punters stood to gain sums in excess of £150,000 from cheating when gambling on 3 no balls and more in respect of a maiden over. It is hard to assess the amounts of money of which persons might have been but were not defrauded in the gambling industry, by virtue of information given to the journalist and to say whether or not any money was made as a result of the information given to the Indian and Dubai contacts, of which there is no evidence. The extent of your gain remains unclear.
17. There is no distinction to be made in respect of the two charges you face and the sentences I impose will be concurrent sentences in respect of each, limited to the period of the indictment, but bearing in mind the fact that the journalist’ sting was not an isolated event.
18. If you had not pleaded guilty the sentence would have been 4 years on each count. In the light of your plea, the sentence on each count, to run concurrently is one of 2 years and 8 months.
Salman Butt
19. You have been convicted by the jury on two counts:
19.1. First – conspiracy to accept corrupt payments for identifying in advance occasions when 3 no balls would be bowled in the Test match at Lords on 26
and 27 August last year and procuring the bowling of those no balls by your two fast bowlers, Amir and Asif
19.2. Secondly – conspiracy to do the same acts in order to enable others to cheat at gambling.
19.3. I sentence you for matters covered by the narrowed indictment alone, relating to the no balls in the Lord’s test match, but I cannot ignore the fact that these were not isolated incidents.
20. It is clear to me that you were the orchestrator of this activity, as you had to be, as Captain, in arranging for these bowlers to be bowling the overs which were identified in advance to Majeed and which he identified to the NOTW journalist. You were a natural captain, picked out as such from the age of 17 for national teams, and had the advantage of a good education. You were a man of status. As I have already said, you bear the major responsibility for the corrupt activities, along with Majeed. The evidence of the text exchange between you and Majeed in the West Indies in May 2010 shows your involvement in such activities outside the scope of the period covered by the indictment.
21. I sentence you in respect of the no balls bowled at Lords alone but bear in mind your prior agreement in respect of the maiden over at the Oval, of which telephone evidence was heard, as well as the West Indies exchanges.
22. Because of your leadership status, your direct involvement with Majeed and your key role in directing the corrupt activities, you are more culpable than either of your two bowlers.
23. I consider that you were responsible for involving Amir in the corruption – an 18 year old from a poverty stricken village background, very different to your own privileged one, who, whilst a very talented bowler, would be inclined to do what his senior players and particularly his captain told him, especially when told there was money in it for him and this was part of the common culture. For an impressionable youngster, not long in the team to stand out against the blandishments of his captain would have been hard. It appears that the corruption may have been more widespread than the defendants here before me, and may have permeated the team in earlier days, though I have seen no direct evidence of that. If that is the case, you, as Captain, perpetuated such an atmosphere of corruption and would be responsible for it and for the desire to use Majeed and his contacts to make money for yourself and others in the team.
24. In the words you used to the jury- what you did was a terrible thing- it is bad for the game of cricket, bad for the country and shows the character of the man involved. Not only were you involved but you involved others and abused your position as captain and leader in doing so, bringing to bear your considerable influence on Amir at the very least.
25. I have taken account of all the matters I referred to when sentencing Majeed and the difficulties in assessing the amounts of money of which persons might have been defrauded, as well as the gain to you from what you did, which remains unclear.
26. You do not have the advantage of a plea. You have been subjected to a ban on playing cricket for 10 years, of which 5 are suspended. You will be 31 or so, when the active part of that ban comes to an end and you will have lost some of the best years of a batsman’s life as well as the years of captaincy. Your playing career may well be at an end for all practical purposes.
27. I bear in mind all that has been said on your behalf and the domestic circumstances outlined to me. You have been very good to your family and you have now a second child, born yesterday to your wife in Pakistan. I have well in mind the financial support you have given to your family and all the other matters raised in the letters produced to the court.
28. I take fully into account the ICC ban and the effect it has on you, which in itself is a considerable punishment for a man in your position. This enables me to take a more lenient course, than I otherwise might. But for that ban, the sentence would have been of the same order as that which I would have imposed on Majeed if he had not pleaded guilty. You do not have the benefit of a plea but the effect of the ban on you is such that I can reduce the sentence I would otherwise have imposed to 30 months imprisonment.
Mohammad Asif
29. You have been convicted of the same 2 offences as your captain Salman Butt. You do not have the benefit of a plea but your culpability is less than his, both because of his key role as captain and orchestrator along with Majeed and
because your participation in this conspiracy was limited to the bowling of one no ball.
30. Whilst no marked NOTW money was found in your possession, the jury have found that you conspired to accept money in the same way as your captain. You bowled a no ball in order to obtain payment and in order to assist others to cheat at gambling. If it was £10,000 for a no ball, you would have got a share of that sum, allowing for a cut for Salman Butt and Majeed. The sums of money of which others could have been defrauded, for the reasons I have already given cannot be accurately calculated.
31. There is no evidence of any prior involvement on your part in such activities but it is clear that Majeed had every confidence in you playing your part when identifying the no ball that you would bowl on the 26th August. It is hard to see how this could be an isolated occurrence for you either.
32. I sentence you in respect of your agreement to bowl that no ball, again bearing in mind all the factors I have mentioned before in sentencing today.
33. I take account of all that is said on your behalf and in particular I
34. In your case there will be concurrent sentences of 1 year’s imprisonment on each count.bear in mind the 7 year ICC ban imposed last year, of which 2 years are suspended, and its effect on your career as a fast bowler now aged 28, which means that your cricketing career is effectively over. This in itself is a considerable punishment for a man in your position. This enables me to take a more lenient course, than I otherwise might. That is the punishment imposed by the cricket authorities but these crimes of which you have been convicted require that a sentence be imposed which marks them for what they are and acts as a deterrent for any future cricketers who may be tempted.
Mohammad Amir
35. You have pleaded guilty to the same two offences as those
of which Asif has been convicted. I give you full credit for that plea, which the Prosecution accepts was entered at the first real opportunity. Following the ICC arbitration in Doha, where you contested the allegations, you made it clear to the cricket authorities that you accepted your responsibility for what you had done, despite the situation in which you found yourself where, it seems, activity such as this was widespread. It took courage to do so, as appears from the information I have been given about pressures you faced.
36. You pleaded on a basis which I refused to accept – namely that your only involvement in spot fixing was at Lords on 26th and 27th August and that you only became involved as a result of pressure (not amounting to physical threats) and influence to the effect that if you did not become involved, it would have serious professional implications for your future career.
37. I therefore gave you the opportunity of a Newton hearing but you decided not to give evidence of the pressure to which your basis of plea referred. You have referred, in material presented to the court, to threats to yourself and your family, saying that there are significant limits to what you can say in public. The reality of those threats and the strength of the underworld influences who control unlawful betting abroad is shown by the supporting evidence in the bundle of documents, including materials from the Anti Corruption and Security Unit of the ICC.
38. You agreed to bowl 2 no balls on the 26th August, of which you bowled one, before the rain set in and then agreed that evening to bowl another on 27th, which you duly did. They were the largest infringements of the front foot rule seen by experienced test cricket observers. The Umpire could not have missed them.
39. I take into account all the factors I have already mentioned when sentencing Asif and all that has been said on your behalf.
40. You come from a village background where life has been hard and you struggled with serious back problems to reach the peak you did when bowling for Pakistan. Compared with others, you were unsophisticated, uneducated and impressionable. You were only 18 at the time and readily leant on by others. I am clear that you bear less responsibility than your captain who influenced you in the manner to which I have earlier referred.
41. But you agreed to do this for money and £1500 of NOTW marked money was found in your possession.
42. Moreover the fact remains, that there is evidence, in the shape of texts and telephone calls with a Pakistani number of your involvement in discussions about fixing brackets at The Oval during the period of the indictment, though there is no evidence that such fixing actually occurred. That discussion did not relate to Majeed. The 2 no balls you actually bowled cannot be seen in isolation from this prior discussion.
43. I take account also of the 5 year ICC ban imposed last year, and its effect on your career as a fast bowler now aged 19, which will create problems for you in returning to play when the ban expires. That is the punishment imposed by the cricket authorities but these crimes of which you have been convicted require that a sentence be imposed which marks them for what they are and acts as a deterrent for any future cricketers who may be tempted, notwithstanding the mitigation which I have heard.
44. If you had not pleaded guilty you would have received concurrent sentences of 9 months’ imprisonment on each offence. As you did plead the sentence will be 6 months in each case.
45. Each of you will serve half the time imposed in custody and then you will be released on licence. If you breach your licence or commit any other offence, you may be brought back to serve the remainder of your sentence. Your counsel will explain the effect of this to you, if you do not understand.
46. I make no orders for compensation as I consider that the NOTW got what it bargained for when paying the £150,000 in question.
47. I order each of the defendants to make the following contributions towards the costs of the Prosecution:
47.1. Amir £9,389 – payable forthwith as it is in the possession of the police
47.2. Asif £8,120 – ditto
47.3. Butt £30,937 – ditto
47.4. Majeed £56,554 – payable within 6 months of today’s date.
48. The transcript of my sentencing remarks can be obtained from the judicial website.
On a painful day for Pakistan off the field with three of their players getting jail terms for their involvement in spot-fixing, Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan made it a tough day for them on the field as well as Sri Lanka reached
245 for 2 by stumps. On a track where the bowlers had little help, Sri Lanka turned in the sort of performance they needed to stand a chance of leveling this series.
The two batsmen who starred were in contrasting form coming into this match: Dilshan had only one half-century in his previous five Tests, while Sangakkara had three half-centuries and a 211 in seven previous innings. Dilshan’s career took off when he became an opener a few years ago, and he rediscovered his touch today on returning to the top of the order after a brief, fruitless dalliance in the middle order.
It didn’t seem like such a dominant day was on the cards for Sri Lanka after the first over of the day from Umar Gul. He got the ball to swerve around early on, beating Tharanga Paranavitana with his first delivery, before the batsman was reprieved three balls later at short leg. That didn’t hurt Pakistan, though, as Gul got the next delivery to bend sharply away from Paranavitana, who could only nick it to second slip. Two overs later, Sangakkara was nearly run out after a miscommunication with Dilshan.
After those initial jitters though, the Sri Lankan batsmen started to take charge. Sangakkara opened out with a typically graceful cover drive in the fourth over before Dilshan got going with a couple of cracking drives for four when Gul pitched it up in the seventh over.
With only two quick bowlers in the side, Pakistan had to resort to long spells of spin, and the slow bowlers had only a little assistance on the first day track. Saeed Ajmal was lofted over his head by Sangakkara in his only over before lunch, while Abdur Rehman was punched in front of point for a boundary by Dilshan.
Sangakkara reached the milestone of 9000 Test runs in the morning, and had little trouble during another easy-on-the-eye innings. He did have a life when on 68, when he was tricked by Saeed Ajmal after the batsman charged down the track; there was a thick edge which was very difficult for wicketkeeper Adnan Akmal to collect.
Akmal did hang on to a similarly difficult chance in the final over before lunch but that too did not result in a wicket as the umpire Shavir Tarapore didn’t realise that the Gul bouncer had flown off Dilshan’s gloves.
Both batsmen were more aggressive in the second session. A combination of poor bowling and aggressive intent resulted in a bunch of boundaries soon after the break, the highlight of which was Sangakkara’s slog-swept six off Rehman. Dilshan showed how confident he was by pulling Junaid Khan for six midway through the session, taking on the man at deep square leg.
Sitting at a strong 170 for 1 at tea, with 36 more overs remaining in the day and the pitch proving untroublesome, Sri Lanka were expected to step the run rate up even more in the final session, but the Pakistan spinners choked off the runs allowing only seven runs in six overs. That slowed down Dilshan’s advance towards his first century since his broken-finger epic at Lord’s, and the wait for a triple-figure score was extended as an Ajmal doosra ended up as a catch to first slip.
That brought together Sri Lanka’s two greatest run accumulators but even Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene couldn’t force the pace, with an early spell yielding only 11 off nine overs. That stranglehold was ended stylishly as Sangakkara eased three boundaries in a Junaid Khan over to race to 98. The 27th Test century came up soon after as Sangakkara launched Rehman over deep midwicket for a massive six.
Jayawardene then survived a close call for lbw off Ajmal – the ball might have gone over the stumps – before Pakistan tested the batsmen with the second new ball, getting it to jag around. Sri Lanka survived those overs, though, which means their most experienced pair will be looking to heap more pain on Pakistan on Friday.
Match Facts
Pakistan v Sri Lanka, November 3-7, Sharjah
Start time 1000 (0600 GMT)
Big Picture
Two days after the Southwark Crown Court’s landmark verdict in the spot-fixing investigation, Pakistan’s players will have to forget about their former team-mates and focus on five days of hard Test cricket. They play at a venue favoured by their predecessors but much has changed since those heady days of the 1980s. In 2001 the Indian government banned the national side from playing there but Pakistan’s exile as a cricketing venue has given the Emirates a fresh lease of life in recent years, and Sharjah is set to host its first Test in nine years, and fifth overall.
The Pakistan side that takes guard on Thursday will also be unrecognisable from the flashy crowd-pullers that used to grace this venue back in the day. More tellingly, they have little in common with the outfit that sizzled with the ball and floundered with the bat in England last summer. The last time Pakistan lined up for Test cricket in Sharjah, they were handed two ruthless hammerings by Australia, including the ignominy of being bowled out for 59 and 53 in the same match. Misbah-ul-Haq, Younis Khan and Taufeeq Umar were a part of that series in 2002, and each of them would disappear into Pakistan’s fringes before re-emerging, stronger than ever. The trio lends the Pakistan line-up a look of steel that was last seen when Inzamam-ul-Haq was still playing. The bowling line-up has lost the Mohammads Asif and Amir but Junaid Khan has already replicated their ability to hoop the ball each way – that too under an unrelenting sun and on unresponsive tracks.
While Pakistan have blended their innate flair with discipline to take a 1-0 lead, their opponents continue to regress inexplicably. Muttiah Muralitharan’s absence has left the bowling hamstrung, but that is only one half of the story. The lack of bowling nous has put Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene under such intense pressure that it has affected their productivity with the bat. The captain, Tillakaratne Dilshan, is going through a horror run of form as well – he has scored 177 runs in his last nine outings, 83 of those coming in one innings against Australia. A turnaround in his personal fortunes will help his team get back on track.
There’s plenty riding on this match for Pakistan. A 2-0 series scoreline will take them ahead of Sri Lanka to fifth in the ICC Test table, and within touching distance of Australia. That’s not too bad for a side that plays all its games away from home, in the absence of a bunch of potential first-choice players who are either ignored, banned, or facing jail terms.
Form guide (completed games, most recent first)
Sri Lanka: LDDDL
Pakistan: WDWWL
In the spotlight
Sri Lanka’s batsmen are accomplished players of spin, and most of them have had the fortune of honing their skills against Muttiah Muralitharan in the nets. Saeed Ajmal posed a different style and trajectory to Murali, and worked his way to 11 wickets in the first two Tests. Sri Lanka would have done their homework in the interim, and will have plans for him in Sharjah. Can Ajmal still manage to slip his doosras through their defences?
Mahela Jayawardene seldom lets a full series go without a hundred. So far in the series, Ajmal has out-thought him twice, while the seamers have got him nicking into the cordon twice. Jayawardene is too good to repeat such errors, and Pakistan should be on high alert when he walks out to bat in the decider.
Team news
Playing two spinners in a four-man attack worked well for Pakistan in Dubai, and the indications are that they will stick to the same combination.
Pakistan (likely): 1 Mohammad Hafeez, 2 Taufeeq Umar, 3 Azhar Ali, 4 Younis Khan, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), 6 Asad Shafiq, 7 Adnan Akmal (wk), 8 Umar Gul, 9 Abdur Rehman, 10 Saeed Ajmal, 11 Junaid Khan
Sri Lanka are mulling the possibility of benching Lahiru Thirimanne and promoting Dilshan back to the opener’s slot. Seamer Kosala Kulasekara’s name is also doing the rounds, as Sri Lanka seek to make their attack more incisive.
Sri Lanka (likely): 1 Tharanga Paranavitana, 2 Tillakaratne Dilshan (capt), 3 Kumar Sangakkara, 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Angelo Mathews, 6 Prasanna Jayawardene (wk), 7 and 8 Two of Dhammika Prasad / Suraj Randiv / Kosala Kulasekara, 9 Rangana Herath, 10 Chanaka Welegedera, 11 Suranga Lakmal
Pitch and conditions
Maximum temperatures of about 31 degrees will provide the teams with welcome respite, though the humidity will continue to sap them. The Intercontinental Cup fixture hosted here between Afghanistan and UAE unfolded in classic Test-match style, with batting getting progressively difficult, as the visitors held on grimly for a draw on the final day. The one-dayers that followed were also low-scoring affairs, with spinners dominating the proceedings.
Dilshan noted the presence of a grassy cover on the strip, but it remains to be seen if the grass makes it to the match morning. Misbah expected it to be a “normal Sharjah pitch” that will assist the batsmen.
Stats & Trivia
Quotes
“We know which areas we have to improve on, and if we play our brand of cricket then it gives us a good chance to level the series. I am not feeling any pressure but I am worried about my batting. I have worked hard and have confidence that I can come out and score big.”
Tillakaratne Dilshan is confident that a turnaround is round the corner for him and for his team
“Sri Lanka are a very good side and they are fighters so we are ready for it but our focus is to do the basics well and play like we have done in the last year and a half.”
Misbah-ul-Haq backs his side to maintain their intensity and close the door on Sri Lanka
Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amirall offered closing submissions via their lawyers on the 21st day of the spot-fixing trial in London on Wednesday, as all three hope and pray that the judge will spare them a jail
sentence.
It was perhaps the most explosive day yet in the trial that has spanned almost five weeks, as the agent at the centre of the fixing scandal Mazhar Majeed and Amir appeared in the dock for the first time, having pleaded guilty at an earlier pre-trial.
After Majeed said Butt had initially introduced him to the subject of arranging spot-fixing and having also heard that Majeed apparently paid £77,000 to the three players for the fix, the lawyers of the three players looked to gain sympathy from the judge Justice Cooke.
Amir’s statement, read out to the court by his lawyer Henry Blaxland QC, was the most heartfelt and remorseful. Amir spoke of how proud he was the first time he was handed his Pakistan shirt and that he wanted to sleep in it.
“First I want to apologise to Pakistan and to everyone that cricket is important to,” Amir said, via his lawyer who read from a prepared statement. “I do know how much damage this has done to the game, a game which I love more than anything else in the world.
“I did decide many months ago that I wanted to admit that I deliberately threw two no-balls at the Lord’s Test last summer. But I know this was very late and I want to apologise for not saying it before. I didn’t find the courage to do it at the beginning, and I know very well that made everything much more difficult.
“Last year was the most amazing year of my life but also it was the worst year. I got myself into a situation that I didn’t understand. I panicked and did the wrong thing. I don’t want to blame anyone else. I didn’t want money at all, I didn’t bowl the no-balls because of money. I got trapped and in the end it was because of my own stupidity.
“My dream was to be the best cricketer in the world. I’m a competitive sportsman and those two no-balls were the only moments in my cricketing life where I have not performed to the very best of my ability. And they were not moments I felt happy to be part of.”
Butt’s lawyer Ali Bajwa QC spoke of how his client had been very different in his behaviour over the last 24 hours since his guilty verdict was handed down and had not eaten or slept in that time. Butt has been immaculately dressed and groomed over the trial but did actually look slightly dishevelled by his own standards, unshaven and drawn. Butt’s wife gave birth to their second son an hour before his verdict was read.
“He’s lost the captaincy of the Pakistan cricket team and this was a job he had for five weeks, they won two Tests, and this was the greatest honour of his life,” Bajwa said, adding that he has since been banned by the ICC for five years and is now “close to unemployable”.
“He has gone from a national hero to a figure of contempt and his ignominy is complete,” Bajwa said. “He does not want to be the cause of his wife’s suffering. He now has only his liberty and his family left to lose.” Bajwa asked, apart from the obvious deterrent aspect, what would a prison sentence achieve? “Please do not make my family suffer any more.”
Asif’s plea was similar. His lawyer Alexander Milne spoke of how Asif had gone into debt by travelling to England four times at his own expense, since his arrest, to consult with lawyers. Milne spoke of how he was without his wife and baby daughter and that since his ICC ban, he was basically finished as a cricketer and he should be allowed to return to Pakistan to attempt to somehow rebuild his reputation in his country.
“Mr Asif has been punished, punished and punished again,” Milne told the judge. He also alluded to the fact that Asif “had thrown away everything”, was almost washed up as a player having been handed a five-year ICC ban and didn’t need to be punished further with a custodial sentence.
“He will be 29 in a month and after five years out of the game, a comeback then would seem out of the question,” adding, “he leaves here a broken man.”
The lawyer of Mohammad Amir told a packed Southwark Crown Court that his client has only ever cheated by bowling two no-balls in the Lord’s Test and has never had any corrupt relationships with bookmakers, as the court has been led
to believe from prosecution evidence.
During the trial, which has already seen Amir’s former captain Salman Butt and fast bowler Mohammad Asif found guilty on two counts, prosecution presented evidence to the jury of phone records that showed suspicious text messages between Amir and two unknown Pakistan numbers. The prosecution suggested Amir was a willing conspirator, which was an image his defence was keen to erase.
“We want to lay to rest that he had a prior corrupt relationship with other people about cheating,” Henry Blaxland QC told the court. “These no-balls were the first time that he was involved in fixing.”
In a lengthy and emotional address, Amir apologised through his lawyer for his involvement in spot-fixing, stating: “I want to apologise to all in Pakistan and all others to whom cricket is important. I did the wrong thing. I was trapped, because of my stupidity. I panicked.”
Blaxland suggested that the Pakistani numbers ending 225 and 590 with which Amir had conversed were effectively belonging to the same racket and were interlinked. He went on to say that when Amir realised what the person was requiring from him (spot-fixing), he no longer encouraged them.
“The person is somebody who introduced himself to Mr Amir in Dubai in November 2009 when Pakistan were playing a tournament against New Zealand. There were two more innocuous meetings. Then out of the blue Amir received a call on August 4.”
Of possibly more incriminating text messages that were recovered with Amir saying ‘how much?’ and ‘what needs to be done?’, the lawyer insisted Amir then gave little time to this person who began to pester him.
“Having found out what this person wanted to do [arranging brackets during The Oval Test], he broke off contact with this person. He did absolutely nothing of what this person was proposing.
“There has been a suggestion that on the 18th of August eight runs were scored [according to a fix], but there was no way Amir could make that happen and the runs that Jonathan Trott did score in that period were actually very lucky runs.”
He added: “We entirely reject what has been suggested [of Amir's corrupt relationships with a Pakistani bookmaker]. The most important aspect is that he broke off contact after he knew what this person wanted.
“A great deal of focus has been placed on it during the trial but we do not accept that this is evidence of a corrupt relationship.”
Shahid Afridi, the former Pakistan captain, has been included in the Pakistan squad for the ODIs and Twenty20 against Sri Lanka. Afridi recently came out of
his self-imposed retirement following Zaka Ashraf’s appointment as PCB chairman in place of Ijaz Butt. On the day he took office, Ashraf said he would meet with Afridi to discuss the situation and that he believed the allrounder still had plenty to offer the national side. The pair met earlier today and following the meeting, Afridi was back in the national side.
“I am ready to play cricket either as a player or captain,” Afridi told reporters after his meeting with Ashraf. “I still have cricket left in me and a lot to offer for my country. It is always a privilege to lead the side but the captain has always been a scapegoat.”
Afridi had retired in protest over the way he was treated by the PCB under Butt, following Pakistan’s ODI series against the West Indies in April and May. A dispute between him and then coach Waqar Younis became public and Afridi was censured by the board and fined rupees 4.5 million ($52,300) for violating its code of conduct.
Allrounder Abdul Razzaq also returns to the squad after being dropped following Pakistan’s World Cup semi-final loss to India. Razzaq missed out on Pakistan’s tours of the West Indies and Zimbabwe, despite being under contract, and said he did not think his exclusion was justified given that he did not have enough opportunities to perform in the tournament.
The selectors have dropped Wahab Riaz after resting him for the tour of Zimbabwe, but Umar Gul returns to lead the attack. He will be backed up by Junaid Khan, who has impressed against Sri Lanka in the ongoing Test series, Aizaz Cheema, who has also done well since making his debut against Zimbabwe, and Sohail Tanvir.
The other major change is the selection of Sarfraz Ahmed as wicketkeeper in place of Adnan Akmal. Sarfraz has played nine one-dayers in his career, the last coming against Australia in Perth in January. The selectors had stuck with Adnan for the sake of stability, and had been concerned about Sarfraz’s ability with the bat, but his domestic performances this season have convinced them to give him another shot. In four Quaid–e-Azam Trophy games, he has scored 388 runs at an average of 97.00, with two hundreds and a fifty.
Former captain and allrounder Shoaib Malik has retained his place despite struggling during the Zimbabwe series, where he averaged just 8.00 from three matches. Misbah-ul-Haq will captain the side, which will play five ODIs and one Twenty20 international against Sri Lanka, the first of which will be played on November 11.
Squad: Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Hafeez, Imran Farhat, Younis Khan, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman, Umar Gul, Aizaz Cheema, Junaid Khan, Sohail Tanvir, Abdul Razzaq, Asad Shafiq
Mazhar Majeed, the players’ agent, came out with a series of astonishing disclosures while in the dock at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday. Majeed, sitting in the dock next to co-conspirators Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and
Mohammad Amir, was seeking the sympathy of the judge through revealing as much of his involvement as possible to limit the length of his sentence having pleaded guilty at a pre-trial in September.
Majeed’s lawyer Mark Milliken-Smith QC said he was first introduced to talk about fixing by Butt, a former Pakistan captain, over dinner during the 2009 Twenty20 World Cup in England. He also revealed he handed £77,000 over to the players from the £150,000 he received from an undercover News of the World reporter. The figures he was asked to distribute were: £2,500 to Amir, £10,000 to Butt and £65,000 to Mohammad Asif.
Asif was paid the larger amount to guarantee that he remained loyal to the fixing racket within the team and was not persuaded to go elsewhere. It is possible that the inference was that Asif could be lost to another fixing racket within the Pakistan team.
The barristers for Butt and Asif each requested that this new information be banned from release by the media, but the judge allowed it to be published but on the understanding that both Asif and Butt’s legal team’s denied these new claims.
Milliken-Smith addressed Justice Cooke post-lunch, after reporting restrictions were lifted regarding Majeed’s involvement as a fixer in the spot-fixing scandal.
Butt and fast bowler Asif were found guilty of conspiring to cheat and conspiring to accept corrupt payments by a jury on Tuesday. They were joined by their former team-mate Amir on the 21st day of the trial, while almost 60 people were stuffed into Court No.4. Special room was made for excess media in a space next to the jury seats.
Milliken-Smith told the judge: “Majeed was having dinner with Butt during the Twenty20 World Cup in England. When having dinner Butt raised the subject, out of frustration, that other players were at it and gave examples of ownership of houses in Pakistan.
“How can X and Y players have these houses when they don’t earn the same amount of money according to their (Pakistan Cricket Board) contract,” Milliken-Smith went on, speaking on the behalf of Majeed. “He told Majeed that he could even tell when players were doing it during matches. Majeed was then shocked although he knew there were rumours pervading for some time that some players he knew were doing it.”
No more was said then, but Majeed went out to see Pakistan during their Australian tour in January 2010. Majeed had lunch with Butt and another player and Butt again raised the subject of fixing. The other player questioned Butt whether Majeed could be trusted. These discussions were conducted after the Test series and before the one-day series, but there was no suggestion that any matches in Australia were fixed.
The same people met again in the West Indies during the 2010 World Twenty20 and during the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka, but Milliken-Smith said no fixing occurred here and they all agreed to set up some fixes for the England tour, when Pakistan would be playing Australia and England.
In between the World Twenty20 and the Australian tour, Majeed visited Pakistan for the first time in 18 years to visit family and also to see players. He met with PCB officials for business reasons but also met again with Butt and the same other player, whom Milliken-Smith did not name. In Pakistan they agreed that they needed to recruit “a couple more players” into the fix.
The lawyer added, of Majeed’s sentiments: “Nothing I say now can detract from the shame and regret that he feels in admitting his involvement.
“He wholly accepts by his plea of guilt that the course of his actions has had a devastating effect on not only cricket itself but on the confidence of many millions who play and watch the sport. He knows he has betrayed people who have played or watched cricket.
“He knows that he must be punished for what he has done…It took courage and remorse for Majeed to plead guilty. We hope that Majeed attracts the full credit for pleading guilty at the first opportunity.
Milliken-Smith added: “The publicity, the press attention and the intrusion into his family’s lives is something he will regret for the rest of his life.”
Majeed had pleaded guilty in the spot-fixing case before the trial started but that fact could not be reported till today due to court restrictions.
Butt, Amir and Asif were exposed by the now defunct British tabloid the News of the World in an undercover sting operation. Majeed, their former agent, was recorded by a secret camera claiming to have bribed Pakistan bowlers Amir and Asif to bowl no-balls at previously agreed moments during the Lord’s Test. He was paid £150,000 to arrange a fix with the Pakistan team.
