Pakistani cricketers go to jail for match fixing

Pakistan’s former Test captain Salman Butt, 27, was jailed for two-and-a-half years for leading a plot to bowl deliberate no-balls in the Lord’s Test against England last summer in a lucrative betting scam.

The world’s former number two Test bowler Mohammad Asif, 28, received a 12-month prison term for delivering one of the fraudulent no-balls.

Mohammad Amir, 19, who had been tipped to become one of the all-time great fast bowlers, was detained for six months in a young offenders institution after he admitted bowling two intentional no-balls at Lord’s.

Mazhar Majeed, 36, the corrupt London-based sports agent at the heart of the fixing scandal, was jailed for two years and eight months.

Passing sentence at London’s Southwark Crown Court, Mr Justice Cooke said the four men had damaged the integrity of cricket and betrayed all fans of the sport through their greed.

He said they engaged in corruption in a game whose very name used to be associated with “fair dealing on the sporting field”, adding that future matches would forever be tainted by the fixing scandal.

The judge told the four men: “’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 heroes and would have given their eye teeth to play at the levels and with the skills that you had.

“You procured the bowling of three 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 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.

“What ought to be honest sporting competition may not be such at all.”

The judge said the offences were so serious that only a prison sentence would be enough to deter any other cricketers or agents who considered becoming involved in corrupt activities, with their “hugely detrimental” impact on the lives of fans who found “good honest entertainment and good-hearted enjoyment” from the sport.

The fixing scandal emerged after the News of the World’s former investigations editor, Mazher Mahmood, approached Majeed in August last year pretending to be a wealthy Indian businessman seeking major international cricketers for a tournament.

The agent was secretly filmed accepting £150,000 in cash from the journalist as part of an arrangement to rig games.

Majeed promised the reporter that Asif and Amir would deliver three no-balls at specific points during the Test between Pakistan and England at Lord’s from August 26 to 29 last year.

He also claimed he had been carrying out match-fixing for two-and-a-half years, had seven players from Pakistan’s national side working for him, and had made “masses and masses of money”.

Mr Justice Cooke said Majeed and Butt were the “architects” of the scam, procuring the two bowlers to deliver the no-balls at Lord’s.

He told Majeed: “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.”

The judge said Butt was the “orchestrator” of the rigging and was responsible for involving the “impressionable” Amir, then aged just 18, in the corruption.

He told the former captain: “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.”

Mr Justice Cooke said Amir was “unsophisticated, uneducated and impressionable”, and “readily leant on by others”, but said there was evidence that he discussed rigging an earlier match with a contact in Pakistan.

He noted the young bowler’s claim that he and his family had faced threats over his part in the fixing and said this was supported by International Cricket Council documents about the strength of the “underworld influences” who control illegal betting abroad.

Mr Justice Cooke said there was no evidence that Asif had taken part in fixing before the Lord’s game, but added: “It is hard to see how this could be an isolated occurrence for you.”

The judge said he took into account the five-year bans all three players received from the International Cricket Council in February when he passed sentence.

The four defendants sat impassively in the dock of Southwark’s Court 4, which was packed with journalists and cricket fans, as they learned their fates. They will be released on licence after serving half their terms.

Butt, Asif and Majeed are expected to begin their sentences at Wandsworth prison in south London.

Amir is due to be sent to Feltham young offenders institution in west London. His barrister, Henry Blaxland QC, said the young bowler would appeal against his sentence.

Butt’s solicitor, Paul Harris, said the cricketer would be lodging an appeal against sentence within 24 hours.

The judge also ordered the four defendants to make contributions towards the prosecution’s costs.

In the case of the three cricketers, this will consist of the money found by police who searched their hotel rooms after the fixing scandal broke.

Amir must pay £9,389, Asif £8,120 and Butt £30,937, while Majeed was ordered to pay £56,554 within six months.