Pakistan cricketers, agent get jail time

Former Pakistan cricket captain Salman Butt will spend 30 months in jail, fast bowler Mohammad Asif a year and 19-year-old Mohammad Amir six months in a correctional facility, for their involvement in spot-fixing during the Lord's Test against England last year.

In a landmark judgment, Justice Jeremy Cooke handed down the sentences to the cricketers and their agent Mazhar Majeed, who got the maximum jail sentence of 32 months.

The sentencing made the cricketing world sit up and take note of corrupt practices in the game that have long existed, but have been dealt with with kid gloves by the game's authorities.

The judgment received widespread acclamation from former players and experts.

While handing down the sentences, Justice Cooke of the Southwark Crown Court, said cricket matches would forever be tainted by the scandal.

"'It's not cricket' was an adage," the judge said. "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."

The judge said all the three players would be released halfway through their sentences if they behaved.

Before pronouncing the sentences, Justice Cooke said to all three: "Your motive was greed, despite the legitimate rewards on offer in salaries and prize money ... Offences so serious that only a sentence of imprisonment will suffice."

The judge called Butt "orchestrator of this activity" and handed a "harsher sentence" than to other players. He also held him responsible for "corrupting" Amir.

He told Butt that he was involved in fixing before the Lord's Test also, but will only punish him for the Lord's Test.

respects the guilty plea

The judge told Amir that he respects the guilty plea of the youngster. "It takes courage."

Butt, Asif and Majeed are thought to have been sent to Wandsworth prison in south London, while Amir will serve his sentence at Feltham young offenders' institution in west London.

Former Pakistan captain Imran Khan called it a shameful day for his country and its cricket.

"I feel very sad not only for the players, but for Pakistan and its cricket," he said. "But the fact is that when these players see corrupt people flourishing in our society, they think they can get away with anything.

"I feel very bad for Amir in particular because he is still very young. I think he saw others doing it and thought he could get away with it as well."

Another former player, Ramiz Raja, said: "They deserved the punishment. They hurt Pakistan cricket and fans and justice has been done."

The three players have all been ordered to pay compensation towards prosecution costs. Butt was ordered to pay £30,937, Aamir £9,389 and Asif £8,120.

The spot-fixing came to light through a sting operation conducted by the now-defunct News of the World.

An undercover reporter of the NOTW paid Majeed £150,000 for details of the precise timing of three no-balls, bowled during the fourth Test between Pakistan and England last August 26.