Pointing fingers: Guilty four race to run each other out

Majeed says a fourth player was involved in spot-fixing; Amir’s lawyer makes emotional appeal.

LONDON:

Pakistan cricket supporters were left wondering if horror, tragedy or farce was the appropriate genre with which to view goings-on in London on Wednesday, as explosive claims and counter-claims about corruption in the Pakistan cricket team stunned Southwark Crown Court.

Judge Jeremy Cooke was due to pass sentence on former Test captain Salman Butt, fast bowlers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif, plus their agent Mazhar Majeed, whose guilty plea can now be reported. Instead, while the four stood in the dock, the day witnessed their lawyers send accusations flying across the packed courtroom.

They could each be jailed for up to seven years for conspiring to accept corrupt payments and up to two years for conspiring to cheat by arranging deliberate no-balls.

Butt, who became a father Tuesday for the second time just 30 minutes before being found guilty, watched as his lawyer said he admitted his career was over and he stood to lose his family.

The lawyer for Majeed pleaded in mitigation – a submission which included a string of extraordinary claims about what was going on within the Pakistan team. Accepting that his client was facing jail, he told the court of the agent’s frustration at the “lies” the jury had heard from the defendants.

The lawyer said Butt had approached Majeed in 2009 to get involved in fixing and that Butt and another player, who is not among the three in the dock, had taken him to a meal in March 2010 to push him into fixing. He said Majeed was introduced to a mysterious bookmaker called Sanjay, who was running the racket.

Majeed claimed that of the £150,000 he received from an undercover newspaper reporter with the News of the World, Asif got £65,000, Butt £10,000 and Amir £2,500. Asif was apparently given such a huge amount to keep him from joining another fixing racket. Lawyers for Butt and Asif dismissed the claims about the sums of cash.

Amir admitted his part in the scam before the trial at Southwark Crown Court started and on Wednesday offered a heartfelt apology during the sentence hearing, which was adjourned until Thursday (today).

“I want to apologise to all in Pakistan and all others to whom cricket is important. The best day of my life was when selected by Pakistan. I was given my shirt the night before. I stood for hours wearing it in front of the mirror,” he said.

“I want to apologise for not pleading guilty before. I wish I had the courage to do it earlier. I did the wrong thing. I was trapped, because of my stupidity. I panicked.”

Cooke, however, dismissed claims that Amir was only involved in one episode of spot-fixing. He said that text messages sent from murky contacts in Pakistan suggested that the talented youngster was also implicated in fixing during the preceding Test at The Oval.

“I refuse to accept that basis of plea on the material I have seen,” Cooke said. “There are certainly texts and the like which suggest that Amir’s first and only involvement was not limited to Lord’s, it was not an isolated and one-off event,” Cooke said. Meanwhile former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif urged the Pakistan Cricket Board to act immediately to save future players from corruption. “We desperately need to save our future generations after what happened to Butt, Asif and Amir,” Latif, who blew the whistle on match-fixing in 1995, told AFP. “We have not done enough in the past and that’s what we are paying for.”

Amir’s mother said her son’s actions were understandable because of his age. “I’ve had this in my hand for a year and a half,” said Naseem Akhtar, mother of the 19-year-old, pointing to prayer beads. “Chil-dren make mistakes. Amir became a big name in cricket, but he is still a child.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 3^rd, 2011.