Pakistan trio Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir have filed appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against bans for spot-fixing.Butt was banned for 10 years, with five of them suspended, after being found guilty of corruption by an International Cricket Council tribunal.Mohammad Asif was handed a seven-year ban, with two of them suspended, while Amir was banned for five years.All three men have denied wrongdoing in a Test match against England.The players were accused of spot-fixing in the fourth Test at Lord's in August 2010.They were banned after newspaper The News of the World reported no balls were bowled at specific points in England's innings after a payment was made to a businessman.Former captain Butt said in a statement: "This is to confirm that today my legal team served a statement of appeal."Amir's lawyer Shahid Karim said he filed his client's appeal on Friday."The process is now to set to motion, we have challenged the judgment of the tribunal on various grounds," Karim said.A CAS statement read: "The Court of Arbitration for Sport has registered the appeals filed by Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Amir and Salman Butt against the International Cricket Council (ICC) Anti-Corruption Tribunal's decision.""The cases will be handled in accordance with the procedural rules set out in the code of sports-related arbitration.""The parties will first exchange written submissions and will then be heard at a hearing, the date of which will be fixed at a later stage.""The CAS will not comment any further on these matters until a panel of arbitrators has been constituted and a procedural calendar established."In a separate development, the players are due to appear at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court on March 17 to face charges of conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments and conspiracy to cheat.
