Pakistani cricketers, Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were handed down sentences at the Southwark Crown Court in London today.
Salman Butt is to get 30 months of prison time as the judge holds him responsible for ‘corrupting Amir’ while Mohammad Asif has been handed a one-year sentence and Amir will be detained for six months at the Young Offenders Institution.
In your opinion, is this a fair verdict?
More importantly, will this discourage players from indulging in corrupt practices in cricket?
Dawn.com invites its readers to give their views and suggestions.
Will all of you say the same thing about Wasim and Waqar. Those were the pioneers of this…
They both should be punish too. Never forget World Cup Q. final aginst India in India.
Cricket is called a “gentlemen’s game”. The conduct of these players shows they are not gentlemen. Do not select such people to represent the nation.
This may be the only chance to put things right in terms of Pak criket. I cannot sympathise with any one of them as they were aware of what they were doing – and then lied on top of everything . Had they been here in pakistan they would go scott free ,as our corrupt judges and cops would have helped them.
Kindly look into the assests they have made inside and out of the country and the assests of all players as well incl. Ajaz Butt – their biggest ally
Agree with what you say, 99% of blame go to the pcb, and Ejaz Butt. They knew what was going on. Any one who saw what happened in Australia, should have known. There are few more that are linked. And if they dont tell the truth, and are found to be involved, they should be sent to jail for a long time, and all their assets taken away from them.
As for Asif and Butt they should have not gone in to this court case, as they were caught out.
How they thought they will get away with this I do not know. This was not Pakistan, but UK, and all have to pay, no matter who you are.
any player who is involved in such activities disgracing their nation. a life term prison is even a minor punishment.
ICC and all courts should be harsher in their verdicts and punishments.
These boys were duped by the bookie who should have been tried first. They thought that bowling no balls is an innocent offense and they would get away with it.
But requirement of justice have not been met: they were hauled up, withdrawn and condemned even before the investigation, and court had no right to give them exemplary punishment as that is against principles of justice.
i dont understand what mohammad aamir is saying…he said that one proper time comes he will then reveal more regarding these fixing issued…what time is he waiting for???….he is in jail serving time..what on earth is he waiting for..if he knows some thing then he should immediately disclose
He’s threatening to the the bigger people involved in the “satta” game to help him or he will spill the beans.
This goes up all the way to Ijaz Butt and may be even higher than him!!!
Glad the cheats have been sent to prison, what shameless character this Butt is, nothing to say about the hardened criminal, Asif, he has been a criminal afterall. Ban Kamran Akmal and Umar Akmal, too. Just see the video of the Aus V Pak Sydney test if you want some evidence, Kamran Akmal has perhaps caused more damage to Pakistan cricket then the trio itself, bring the cheat Akmal brothers under the radar, too, hope the ICC catches them after seeing all the evidence.
Right decision have been made. They have spoiled the name of their country, damaged the spirit of game and have disappointed their fans. why to let them off? Only because we argue that it never happened to any one in the past. But that is not the excuse to let the corruption and wrongdoings rust the cricket.
Unfortunately whenever such things happens against Pakistan, we take it as the conspiracy. The corruption is so deep rooted in the country and cricket that if such measures were not taken now then we might be banned by ICC to take part in international cricket. Hopefully PCB will do reforms and take steps in the betterment of cricket.
Am very glad to hear that all the spot fixing players have been sentenced to imprisonment, I wish we would have done this long time ago. Now it’s proved on them that they betrayed the cricket, nation and the country. Now it’s up to all Pakistani govt and the nation that according to the Pakistan constitution WHAT SHOULD BE THE PUNISHMENT FOR BETRAYAL TO THE COUNTRY AND NATION. I hope we all know that, so lets join hand against them and ask the govt to put them in traitors category and punish then like traitors.
Corruption breeds our nation. But besides these Trios stupid mistake in ruining everything. I fully blame PCB for not educating and keeping a strict eye on the players. But after this painful wakeup call, PCB should train team managers and develop a protocol for players code of conduct as their behavior directly effects the bleeding nation. Maybe consult cricket Australia next door BCCP/india in how they manage cricket affairs. May allahtallah guide us, ameen.
It is a painful jolt. It shatters my memory as Pakistan being a country of God fearing honest people. These players have brought shame to Pakistan. All players taking part in international sports should know that they are the true ambassadors of their country’s goodwill. The incedent is deplorable in every respect. Specially horrifying is the fact that Pakistan has produced giants in cricket world, people like Imran. Kind of people who still command lot of respect.
The sentences should be much more and in fact I would stamp them for “disgraceful” they knew very well what they were doing.
The trio should be ashamed to deceive the nation. It was a great decision by English court and a shame for Pakistan.
Pakistani nation would have been more happy if these trials would have been conducted by a Pakistani court.
The people who sell Pakistan whether they are Sports Men, Media Men, Establishment, Beaurocrats or Politicians must be brought to justice.
Well, although Paki Cricks have done wrong but why are they being punished there, they should have been arrested and sent to Paki Jail. They are Criminals of Pakistan’s name so v should decide their verdict. Same verdict should be held in Pakistan but I suggest giving minimum 15yrs verdict to Asif as he has been continuously depleting our name. Along with this he should be battoned twice daily for his acts.
PCB should develop our cricketers w.r.t manners, laws, patriotism etc. and please stop emphasizing on english… let them use their mother tongue as French, Germans etc. do. Feel proud to be a Pakistani and built the nation’s name for good.
I second that 100%. If same thing would have happened with the English or any other country’s players then Pakistani courts would have never been allowed to decide their fates. It is pure negligence of the government of Pakistan that Pakistani players are fighting their cases in English courts.
Match fixing happens in every cricket match and all cricket playing countries and their boards are somehow involved in it and ICC has failed to stop it but only Pakistani players have been made the escape goats.
All I wanna say is, Pakistani players should be brought back to Pakistan and they should be punished by the Pakistani courts and not by the English courts.
Gee I wonder where the Ghairat Brigade is now?
Cricket is a horrible waste of time. Stop watching it. All games are fixed, that is why they say the cricket is an unpredictable game.
What about Ijaz Butt, Yawer saeed and management? Would any body have doubt about that if all these were performing their responsibilitites properly , the said incident never be happened.
When we will be able to catch those culrpits authorities who are the responsible of all these culture and system, where any new candidate can be trape.
Think about that?????????????????
Interestingly the guys were advised to deny the blame till last moment – this was well planned activity to drag the case till the suspense reaches at climax.
They could have received much lesser punishment if they had admitted the truth in start and instead had put more of the blame on Mazhar Majeed.
But the agencies played well and got their objective.
Along with their other objectives like defaming Pakistani cricket, they have eliminated corruption in cricket to much extent at the cost of Pakistan’s cricket.
What they did was wrong and disgraceful however, I still don’t understand the incarceration. Several players in the past have accepted throwing away matches let alone a ball… and yet there was never any jail for them. Bans, fines, perhaps even public service would have done good. And that Justice Cook saying that in the future any misplaced event will bring suspicion because of the trio is hardly true as the fans of the game have been looking at things suspiciously since the time of Warne, Waugh to Azharuddin, Malik and Cronje.
The first chapter whether Guilty or not Guilty is over. The three was found guilty and handed over what they deserved. For Salman Butt & his evil mentor the sentence was somewhat light, In the opinion of the general public the two deserved more than what they got, any justice is done & it is hoped that the game of cricket will have more respect in future.
The second chapter is still open and remains to be addressed. Few questions in minds are:
1. Why & how this particular incident got such publicity?
2. This incident happened couple of months before the world cup?
3. Why ICC never acted before the way it did this time?
4. Why PCB failed to discipline the suspected players?
5. Lastly who benefited most from the banning of the three players in the last world cup?
In my opinion there existed a bigger game plan to weaken Team Pakistan in the World Cup.
I agree with these questions, there may be some consiprecy. It took (6) months to plan as the newspaper knew since January and happened in June or July. The reputation of News of the World is a very disgraced Newspaper. This event is planned with the help of Pakistanis. Why all the times, We have traiters. If this was not Planned may be never Happened. I am not taking the side of tainted cricketers but beware of the enimies. There was no need of Jail. They were already thrown out of cricketers. The justice system changed its norms in this case. Why The NEWS OF THE WORLD is closed in Britain, THINK>
A fair verdict. Now PCB should do a cleanup of it’s house and start investigation on black sheep who are hands in glove with bookies and bringing shame to our country. We should have zero tolerance policy on such issues. This is the only way to give a strong message to the world that we are serious to root out the evil of corruption from the game that we all love.
They deserved a harsher sentence for the shame and infamy they have brought to Cricket and Pakistan. It’s appalling to see the denial and appeal for mercy coming from Salman Butt and Mohd. Asif. @ to Salmans family..I would say that Allah has done justice! The trio represent a society that is rabid with corruption. They are a product of a social system where anyone can get away by breaking the law. No one is convicted. I am happy that they were tried and will serve out their term in England. In Pakistan there was no hope of an inquiry let alone a conviction. Where convicts go scot free, the trio would have been sitting mum on their stashes of ill gotten wealth. Having said this, I doubt this would deter the new breed of sportsmen. The change will only come when the society starts rejecting the black sheep and honesty and accountability begins first in the upper strata of governance.
This is another sad day in our history. But i hope against hope that we actually learn from this. Now the cricket lovers of this country know exactly why we kept on losing matches from where only we could lose. Now we know why the world used to say “which Pakistan team will enter the field today?”
These are facts which cannot be ignored. In my humble point of view we should not show any sympathy towards Amir. The fact of the matter is that we all know he is ‘NOT” 18 anyway. He has left a bad name to our country like Asif and Butt. They cheated their teammates, opponents, nation and most of all the “Gentleman’s game” and it’s loyal fans.
I wish Ijaz Butt is taken to court over this issue. He is equally responsible for this abyss. The Akmal brothers should never play for Pakistan again. Allah has blessed this nation with immense cricketing talent. We will produce Amirs and Asifs again, but we have to make sure that they honour the green flag the way it deserves to be!
Fellow players like Kamran Akmal, Wahab Riaz and others will be wiping their foreheads and thinking, “Thank God! That was close!” When will PCB and Pakistani courts look into these mysterious matches where Pakistani team managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory . . . the Sydney test against the Aussies was a disgrace. Over forty years I’ve seen Pak team pull some unbelievable stunts, now it’s quite clear what was going on in the dressing rooms and the hotel lobbies. A few more players should be going inside along with Butt and Asif, because it was mostly a team effort. I remember Kamran always shouting “Shabash, Shabash” from behind the stumps, even when it was a no ball!
You reap what you sow and the three got what they deserved. Allowing and accepting wrongdoings because others in the past have not been penalised is no argument for letting the wrong continue! Let this be the beginning of a clean-up of corruption in Cricket!
Does this mean that going forward any player from any nation for any sports if caught for wrong doing will be impriosned. I hope so!!! If not then this will become the mother of all hoaxes. I ex[ect to see english soccer players and others getting the same sentences. Only then justice would have been served.