Amir lawyer confident of fair hearing

The lawyer of teenage pace bowler Mohammad Amir insists he has faith in the ICC-appointed tribunal which will decide the fate of his client and two other players implicated in the Pakistan spot-fixing scandal.

Amir, along with Mohammad Asif and Salman Butt, will face an ICC hearing in Doha starting on January 6. At present the trio cannot play competitively and have had their Pakistan contracts withdrawn, and face possible life bans from the sport if found guilty of spot-fixing charges.

Amir and Butt appealed against their suspensions at the end of October but saw their claims rejected by Michael Beloff QC, who will also chair next month's three-man tribunal to adjudicate on allegations that Amir and Asif bowled no-balls to order in the fourth Test against England in August, with Butt orchestrating events as captain.

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The ICC have selected the panel that will preside over the hearing, but Amir's lawyer Shahid Karim is confident of a fair outcome despite admitting that an independent tribunal would have been the preferred option.

"Looking at the case from a legalistic point of view, from the point of view of the case being presented to an independent and unbiased tribunal, then I think he has a fair chance of coming out clean," Karim said.

"However, the situation is an odd one. Ideally we would have liked the tribunal to be completely independent of the ICC, but at this point in time I have to have full faith in the tribunal."

Karim added: "We raised a slight objection to Michael Beloff QC chairing the hearing in Doha, as he had heard the case in the provisional hearing, but he chose not to remove himself.

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"However, as mentioned earlier, my training as a lawyer requires me to have full faith in the forthcoming tribunal and I should expect a fair hearing."

Should the outcome of the hearing go against Amir, Karim admitted the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland would be the next avenue to explore.