check the awesome jail where cricketers named Salman butt , Mazhar Majid and Muhammad Asif will be jailed
Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif and Mazhar Majeed all imprisoned for spot-fixing
Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt, team-mates Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir and their agent Mazhar Majeed have been jailed for conducting a fixing conspiracy that corrupted the “image and integrity” of cricket.
Butt was jailed for two years six months, Asif for one year and Amir, who the judge ruled was less culpable than the others, will be detained for six months in a young offenders institution. Majeed, described as the architect of the fixing operation, was jailed for two years eight months. The four showed little reaction as their sentences were read out.
They will all serve half of their sentences before being released on licence, meaning Amir, who will appeal against his sentence, will be free in three months, Asif in six and Butt in 15 months.
The cricketers become the first sportsmen convicted for on-field corruption in the UK since the 1960s and the first to be jailed for the offence of cheating at gambling.
The conspiracy was exposed following a sting by undercover reporters working for the News of the World, who filmed Majeed accepting £150,000 to arrange the bowling of no-balls in the Oval and Lord’s Tests.
Mr Justice Cooke offered a withering assessment of the damage the conspiracy has wrought on the game, and demolished the defence and basis of pleas offered by all four defendants.
“The gravamen of the offences committed by all four of you is the corruption in which you engaged in a pastime, the very name of which used to be associated with fair dealing on the sporting field. 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 which 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 three of you as heroes and would have given their eye teeth to play at the levels and with the skill 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 to watch it on TV, in the shape of licence money or TV subscriptions, will be led to wonder whether there has been a fix 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
“In Pakistan, where cricket is the national sport, the ordinary follower of the national team feels betrayed by your activities, as do your fellow countrymen in this country. You Butt, Asif and Amir have let down all your supporters and all followers of the game.
“These offences, regardless of pleas, are so serious that only a sentence of imprisonment will suffice to mark the nature of the crimes and to deter any other cricketer, agent or anyone else who considers corrupt activity of this kind, with its hugely detrimental impact on the lives of many who look to find good honest entertainment and good-hearted enjoyment from following an honest, albeit professional sport.”
Turning to the defendants individually he described Butt and Majeed as “the architects” of the fixing operation.
He said Butt was the “orchestrator” of the bowling of no-balls and was responsible for the corruption of Amir.
“It is clear to me that you were the orchestrator of this activity, as you had to be, as Captain … you bear the major responsibility for the corrupt activities, along with Majeed.
“Because of your leadership status, your direct involvement with Majeed and your key role in directing the corrupt activities, you are more culpable than either of your two bowlers.
“I consider that you were responsible for involving Amir in the corruption – an 18 year old from a poverty stricken village background, very different to your own privileged one, who, whilst a very talented bowler, would be inclined to do what his senior players and particularly his captain told him, especially when told there was money in it for him and this was part of the common culture.
"In the words you used to the jury – "what you did was a terrible thing- it is bad for the game of cricket, bad for the country and shows the character of the man involved.”
The judge said that had Butt not been banned for 10 years by the ICC he would have received a sentence of closer to four years.
Asif was told he bears less responsibility than Butt for the crime but that while no money was found in his possession, it was “hard to see that this was an isolated occurrence”.
Turning to Amir the judge said he did not accept his plea that he was only involved in fixing the two no-balls he delivered at Lord’s, and that there was evidence of other engagement with fixers.
He was given credit for admitting his crime – “It took courage to do so” the judge said – and drew attention to his impoverished upbringing.
“You come from a village background where life has been hard and you struggled with serious back problems to reach the peak you did when bowling for Pakistan.
“Compared with others, you were unsophisticated, uneducated and impressionable. You were only 18 at the time and readily leant on by others. I am clear that you bear less responsibility than your captain who influenced you in the manner to which I have earlier referred.
“But you agreed to do this for money and £1500 of News of the World marked money was found in your possession.”
The judge also rejected the basis of Majeed’s guilty plea, saying there was evidence he was engaged in other fixing activities and had abused his position as an agent to corrupt the players.
“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.
All four were ordered to contribute to the prosecution’s costs, Amir £9,389, Asif, £8,120, Butt £30,937 and Majeed £56,554.
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