Pakistan trio face judgement day

DOHA: A make-or-break anti-corruption tribunal against Pakistan cricketers Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer opens in Doha Thursday with the players facing lengthy bans if found guilty. The hearing will be held behind closed doors at the Qatar Financial Centre from 0630 GMT and is scheduled to run until January 11, although lawyers have indicated a verdict may come earlier. The three face charges of spot-fixing during Pakistan's tour of England last year in a scandal that rocked the sport. It is alleged that they conspired in the bowling of deliberate no-balls -- claims they all deny. They were provisionally suspended by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in September, with the world governing body's code of conduct carrying a minimum five-year ban if corruption charges are proved. The maximum punishment is life out of the game. The scandal came to light when Britain's News of the World claimed that seven Pakistani players, including Butt, Aamer and Asif, took money from bookie Mazhar Majeed to obey orders at specific stages in the Lord's Test in August. Scotland Yard detectives raided the team hotel in London, reportedly confiscating a huge amount of money from Salman's room. The three-man independent hearing is being led by code of conduct commissioner and leading lawyer Michael Beloff of England, aided by Justice Albie Sachs from South Africa and Kenyan Sharad Rao. It is set to open with a statement from the prosecution followed by a response from representatives of the three players. All three have serious legal heavyweights going in to bat for them with paceman Asif, 28, represented by Allan Cameron, brother of British Prime Minister David Cameron. Former Test captain and opening batsman Salman, 26, is represented by British-based lawyer Yasin Patel, while 18-year-old fast bowler Aamer's legal team is headed by Shahid Karim from Pakistan. British newspapers said Pakistan one-day captain Shahid Afridi and head coach Waqar Younis have been summoned as prosecution witnesses. While the ICC has made clear it will not be commenting until a verdict is reached, chief executive Haroon Lorgat told the BBC recently he was confident of the case against the players. "We need to send out a strong message and that is part of what we want to achieve," Lorgat said. "We've worked hard at collecting all the evidence that we would require to make the charges stand." The Pakistan team are currently touring New Zealand, but speaking ahead of the hearing, Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt told reporters that corruption was a curse that must be stamped out. "It has to be an all-out effort from all concerned to ensure that such wrongdoing does not occur in the future and we at the PCB are doing all we can to curtail all such practices," he said. "The PCB and ICC have taken a lot of steps, future plans have been drafted to pursue a policy of zero tolerance to corruption." The scandal is seen as the worst in cricket since that of South Africa's Hansie Cronje. A decade ago the former South Africa captain, who died in a mysterious plane crash in 2002, was revealed to have accepted money from bookmakers in a bid to influence the course of games as well as trying to corrupt his team-mates.

Read More

Pakistan spot-fixing trio could discover fates by next Tuesday

• Tribunal chaired by Michael Beloff QC begins today
• Chairman hopeful of early resolution in Qatar hearing
The Pakistan cricketers at the centre of last year's spot-fixing allegations could find out their fates by next Tuesday. The chairman of the independent tribunal that will decide the fate of Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif and Salman Butt said today that he hoped for a quick decision.
The three players, who face a range of charges under the International Cricket Council's anti-corruption code, will appear before the three-person tribunal as part of a six-day hearing that begins tomorrow in Doha, Qatar.
Chaired by Michael Beloff QC, it will seek to reach a definitive verdict on the allegations of spot fixing during the fourth Test at Lord's that blighted Pakistan's tour of England last summer after they were revealed by the News of the World.
After they were accused of conspiring to deliberately bowl no balls at specific points of the match, all three were provisionally suspended by the ICC.
Butt and Amir failed in October in a bid to get the provisional suspension lifted, while Butt also failed in a subsequent attempt to have the hearing postponed.
"The parties have helpfully exchanged detailed submissions in advance of the hearing to seek to identify the issues that are in dispute in these proceedings," Beloff said today
"The procedure for the hearing, it has been agreed by all parties and approved by me. It is designed to ensure that all parties can be satisfied that they have been given a full and fair opportunity to present their evidence and advance their submissions."
The ICC, which has been gathering evidence since formally charging the three on 2 September last year, will make opening statements, presenting its case against each player in turn. It will then present its evidence, including witnesses who will appear in person and via telephone, each of whom will also be cross-examined by lawyers for the players and members of the tribunal.
The players will then present their defences, submitting their own evidence and witnesses. Beloff did not guarantee to come to a decision by next Tuesday, the last scheduled day of the hearing, but said he would do so if practicable.
All three players, who have protested their innocence, face the prospect of lengthy bans if found guilty.
The ICC chief executive, Haroon Lorgat, said last month that the ICC had "worked hard at collecting all the evidence that we would require to make the charges stand".
Of the potential punishments, he said: "We would want to be proportional but at the same time we do not want to show any leniency. These are severe issues and integrity of the game is absolutely fundamental and we would not want to tolerate any of that in the sport."
The tribunal will go ahead despite the fact that the Crown Prosecution Service has yet to reach a decision on whether to press charges against the three men under English law, although it has now received a full file of evidence from the police.
"The CPS special crime division is reviewing a file of evidence in relation to allegations of match-fixing by Pakistani cricketers," a spokesman said. "We are not awaiting any further substantial evidence from the police at this time and will make a decision in due course."

Read More