One step too far
An in-depth look at the spot-fixing events that shook cricket, including never revealed scenes
A huge no ball — perhaps the biggest in international cricket since the advent of the front-foot rule — is bowled by Amir on the first ball of his third over. PHOTO: AFP
England’s weather is notoriously and famously fickle. August of 2010 was no different. It rained around the country for most of the day on the 26th. At Lord’s, in the very heart of London, the few thousands gathered for the opening day of the fourth and final England v Pakistan Test were frustrated by the lack of action.
What action there was, was typical of Pakistan. A huge no ball — perhaps the biggest in international cricket since the advent of the front-foot rule — is bowled by Mohammad Amir on the first ball of his third over.
The Lord’s crowd does not react very well to it. They are here to witness cricket of the highest quality. Even a school boy would have been ashamed of this overstepping violation. Skipper Salman Butt runs in with some sawdust and sprinkles it on the landing crease so that Pakistan’s young prodigy does not slip again on the wet outfield as he runs up to bowl.
The sawdust works instantly. Amir makes up for it with a scorcher of a delivery the next ball. It takes the edge of Alastair Cook’s bat and flies straight to Umar Akmal at third slip. He drops it. The groans increase.
Only 12.3 overs could be bowled that day, with the score at 36-1. The highlight being Mohammad Asif’s unplayable delivery going through Andrew Strauss and hitting timber.
Sunshine and the prospect of an exciting day of cricket follow.
Amir runs through the England top order as if they are made of cheese, leaving them 47-5 before Matt Prior and Jonathan Trott consolidate to take them to 102-5. Amir bowls yet another huge no ball, this time to Trott.
He later claimed he did it deliberately, albeit for a different motive. “I remember Amir left the field after bowling that no ball, he returned and sat next to me in the dugout,” said fast-bowler Tanvir Ahmed, who was part of the squad but was not selected in the playing eleven. “I said to him, ‘Amir yaar itni bari no-ball, kia kar raha tha tu? [Amir that big a no ball, what were you doing?]’ He shrugged and said, “Yaar wo [Trott] phenti maar raha tha, mein ne socha iss ko dara kar backfoot pe karta hoon [He (Trott) was hitting us out of the park, I thought I will scare him and send him on the backfoot].’”
Trott was on 21 and England were 52-5.
Amir returns just after lunch, to devastating effect. Two wickets in four balls left England on the brink at 102-7.
Pakistan openers Imran Farhat and Yasir Hameed must have been preparing themselves mentally; they will be batting soon. They wait, and they wait, and they wait. The next wicket never comes. In its stead, a record unbeaten partnership between Trott and Stuart Broad adds 244 runs before the end of the day’s play. England 346-7 at stumps.
It is typical of England’s weather to follow up such a rain-filled day with one so pleasant. It is typical of Pakistan’s cricket to follow up such a bright start with a performance so dismal. The next day the visitors lose 14 wickets to mean that England just need to administer the last rites on day four. More pleasant weather from London, more dismal cricket from Pakistan.
And then comes the storm.
By the time the players returned to the Marriott Hotel Regents Park, where they were staying, they were still not over the humiliation they had suffered on the pitch.
“Ye kia hogaya hai, kaisay hogaya hai [What has happened here, how did it happen]?” muttered Salman Butt to no one in particular as the players waited for the elevator to get to their respective rooms.
It was about to get much worse.
A mere 13 kilometres away from the hotel, PCB lawyer Taffazul Rizvi is on his way to watch a film at a Harrow on the Hill multiplex cinema.
He is with a friend, who has just bought a new red Ferrari. They have parked the car in a multi-storeyed car park and are walking towards the cinema when Rizvi’s phone rings. It is Shafqat Rana, the team’s assistant manager.
“Aethay chappa paegaya, talashiyan ho rahi hain [The place has been raided, a search is going on].” The line drops.
More than the words, it is the panic in Rana’s voice that flusters Rizvi. He knows instantly something has gone horribly wrong. He can’t wait for his friend to get his Ferrari. There is no time for that, he opts to catch the next train instead. In the process the lawyer becomes perhaps the first man in history to think the London rail would be a quicker mode of travel than a Ferrari.
“I took the Metropolitan Line, which goes straight to Finchley Road,” said Rizvi, impeccably dressed in a blue shirt and matching tie, as we sit in his spacious Lahore office.
“I got off and ran the rest of the way. It took me around 20 minutes to get there and I couldn’t even dream that they would be here for something like that. The worst case scenario that I could possibly think of was that one of the guys had been driving someone’s car and had crashed it somewhere.”
The then PCB chairman Ijaz Butt, who was staying at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington, called him while he was on the train to explain what Rana had not. The rooms of three players — Amir, Asif and Butt — were being searched under suspicion of them being involved in fixing. Rizvi realised the seriousness of the matter immediately: fixing is prosecuted as a criminal offence in the United Kingdom.
“We were all in our rooms when I heard some commotion outside. I stepped out of the room to check what it was and saw security officers clad in suits walking around in the corridor,” said a member of the team, requesting anonymity. “I wasn’t sure what was happening then, but the news soon broke. It was like someone had pulled the rug from underneath us.”
By the time Rizvi arrived at the hotel, around half a dozen police officers in gloves and white overalls were already going through the rooms of Amir, Asif and Butt.
“Salman was visibly shaken by the raid and was being told to take deep breaths, but the other two seemed much calmer,” said a source present at the hotel at the time. “However, after a while Salman managed to grab a hold of himself and appeared much more relaxed.”
Another player mentioned how shaken up the skipper was. “It seemed like Salman would try and jump out of the window, so one officer had to guard the window and keep an eye on Salman while the others searched the rooms,” he said.
The head of the investigation, Deputy Superintendent Mathew Horne, informed Rizvi of why the rooms were being searched. “We were provided evidence by a newspaper, News of the World (NOTW), that shows that three Pakistan players were involved in spot-fixing,” said the detective.
Thinking quickly, as lawyers are known to do, Rizvi asked Massey how he could be sure that the newspaper hadn’t just given them the information regarding the no-balls after they had been bowled and that it wasn’t just a stunt to sell papers.
The answer was as simple as it was damning. NOTW had provided information of when the no-balls would be bowled before they had been bowled. Specifically Amir’s no-ball on the first ball of the third over of the match and the third ball of his third full over on day two, and Asif’s on the last ball of the tenth. All three no-balls were to be bowled on the first day but bad weather only permitted two of them to be bowled.
A phone conversation between Faisalabad-born bookie Mazhar Majeed and undercover NOTW reporter Mazhar Mahmood was later released by the NOTW in which the bookie warned the undercover reporter that Amir may or may not bowl a no-ball on the second day as the English wickets were falling too quickly. A wicket off a no-ball would highlight that delivery and may end up causing suspicion. Amir, however, ended up bowling that no-ball as well.
The police found around £30,000 in cash in the rooms of the three men; in American Dollars, Pound Sterlings and UAE Dirhams. The players — pacing nervously outside their rooms in the team’s official green and white tracksuits for the 3-4 hours that the police continued their search — claimed it was money that they had received from sponsorship deals.
Majeed, who had been secretly recorded promising that the no balls will be bowled before the Test even began? Just their agent, they claimed. “They just shrugged their shoulders when they were asked how Majeed could have known that no-balls would be bowled specifically on those balls,” added a source.
However, 50 £50 notes found from Salman’s room were from the same pile of notes that Mahmood had given to Majeed, while 30 of those £50 notes were recovered from Amir’s room.
The police, armed with a search warrant as well as a seizure warrant, seized the cash along with several other items. Having received sufficient incriminating evidence from the NOTW as well as from the players’ rooms, the officers decided the routine course of action would be to arrest them.
Ijaz Butt stepped in. He reasoned with Metropolitan Police Service Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick that the images of the three players — who in all likelihood would have been released on a police bail that same night according to a legal expert — being led away in handcuffs would be transmitted all over the world. The media would have had a field day and Pakistan’s name would have been tarnished and dragged through the mud. Even in the face of this debacle, it was a PR disaster everyone involved wanted to avoid.
Dick consented, on the condition that all three players will be available for interviewing whenever summoned. Butt agreed. In the meanwhile, chairman may have been hoping that the PCB could conduct an internal investigation into the matter.
But then a letter from Dick arrived on September 1, 2010. “As you know, we took the decision not to arrest any of the players when the enquiry commenced, a key part of that decision was that the players would make themselves available for interview at our request,” stated the letter. “We will need to interview these three players and I understand that arrangements are in place to ensure that they are available for interview.”
The letter seemed a formality, merely stating in writing what had been a verbal agreement two days ago. But then it continued, “In the UK, a police investigation takes precedence over any civil or disciplinary matters and I ask that you do not take any action that may prejudice any criminal enquiry. Action that could prejudice a future criminal prosecution could include interviewing players or witnesses or taking any account from them relating to the matter under investigation.”
The board’s hands were tied; they could not conduct an in-house enquiry into the matter.
In the meanwhile, all three players continued to “emphatically deny” the charges levied on them, both on an official capacity and also in private to their teammates and friends.
As expected, the front page of the next day’s NOTW had the now infamous picture of Mazhar Majeed with a stack of cash sprawled on the table in front of him. The word ‘caught’ simply written in white block letters as the headline. Inside, the story ran with the headline, ‘No ifs and Butts’ over nine page. The news of the raid had been making the rounds all over the world by now; this just made it official. The scandal was out in the open.
In its backdrop, the entire team was left in a state of confusion and chaos, and cricket took a definite backseat. The next morning, what proved to be the final day of the match, it was decided in the team meeting that the players will take to the field directly without warming up.
On the way to the ground, the team bus was greeted by a raucous mob outside Lord’s, who shouted slogans and hurled insults at the players for sullying the sport’s reputation. Traitor and sell-out were among the more flattering words hurled at them. It was just the beginning of what would be an entire series of confrontations and abuse.
By then the players were merely going through the motions. “Of course it was a shock and despite the fact that the team management appeared strong on paper, they totally crumbled under pressure,” said another member of the squad, requesting anonymity. “We had sort of given it [the match] up; we couldn’t concentrate, there was no plan, and one batsman followed another back to the dressing room, the fight and focus had totally deserted us.”
The players could be forgiven for being in such a state of mind. “We were all desperately worried about our future,” he continued. “Here we were in an alien country with security and police all around us, and we kept thinking to ourselves, ‘Are we going to be behind bars?’”
Tanvir summed up the mindset of the team at the time. “My room wasn’t searched, we all had single rooms, but I didn’t meet or speak to anyone during that time,” he said. “That night, my mother called me because she had heard on the news that the entire team had been arrested. I told her that wasn’t the case and then quickly hung up since I didn’t know if my phone was also being tapped without my knowledge.”
On September 2, 2010, less than a week after the NOTW article, the ICC announced a provisional ban on all three players. They were charged with "various offences under Article 2 of the ICC Anti-Corruption Code for Players in relation to the Lord's Test".
A few days later, on September 6, the players visited the Pakistan High Commission in Knightsbridge and also claimed their innocence to High Commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan, who was named as the contact person for the initial proceedings. The news of the players’ visit had somehow reached the public and a crowd had gathered outside the premises, armed with rotten tomatoes and eggs.
In order to avoid any unpleasant scenes, a decoy car was placed in front of the high commission and the crowd was asked to step a little further away in order to make it seem that the players were about to leave. Having thus distracted the crowd, the players secretly left through a back exit that led to an alleyway where a car was waiting for them.
Facing such strong public backlash at every turn, the trio wanted to return home as soon as possible. However, considering the seriousness of the allegations levied on them, the Scotland Yard was understandably reluctant to let them leave for Pakistan. Once again, Ijaz was called into action. He asked the Pakistan government to step in and with the help of the foreign office was able to get permission for the players to return to Pakistan on the condition that they will present themselves whenever summoned.
On September 11, 2010, the players arrived at the Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore. Just like at the high commissioner’s office, they were forced to leave through a back exit in order to avoid the rowdy crowd that had gathered to greet them.
18 days later, Salman became the first of the three to appeal his provisional ban; the other two followed suit soon after. However, on October 22 of that year, Asif realised the futility of an appeal and withdrew it.
Salman, in the meanwhile, continued to deny the allegations, even to his own counsel and insisted on appealing the ban. “On record and even off the record he always maintained he hadn’t done it, even to us,” claimed lawyer and former Test cricketer Aftab Gul, a friend of Salman’s father Zulfiqar Butt and his legal counsel at the start. “But there was no longer any conviction in his denial. It was almost like a tacit admission of guilt.”
Gul, however, wasn’t part of the legal battle for long. “Ijaz and I had our differences, so he threatened Salman that the PCB would stop supporting him if he hired me as his lawyer,” he claimed. “But since I have known Salman all my life, he wanted me there so we decided to bring along another lawyer, Dr Khalid Ranjha, along with myself to appease Ijaz.”
That arrangement, too, did not last very long. “Aitzaz Ahsan stepped in and wanted to take over the appeal, so I stepped back,” he said. “However, their appeal [of the provisional ban] was so poorly drafted that it was dismissed the same afternoon.”
Even being doomed from the start did not hinder the takers from this legal battle. “There is a lot of fame and money in sports litigation,” explained Gul. “We received calls from as far away as South Africa from legal firms hoping to get in on the action.”
But an army of lawyers would have found it difficult to win what was as open-and-shut a case as they get. “They had already made up their minds,” said Gul. “But to be fair, the decision they made was absolutely correct; the evidence was just too damning to begin with for any other decision to be possible. There was nothing anyone could have done.”
On the last day of the month, Amir and Salman’s appeals were rejected. Four days later, on November 4, the PCB cancelled the players’ central contracts. The pieces continued to fall apart.
But with things going from bad to worse, Amir was offered an olive branch and a chance for redemption by the ICC. His lawyer, a now Lahore High Court judge, received a letter in which the governing board had stated the proposed deal. All Amir had to do was come clean and he would be treated leniently; his age being the crucial factor in the offer. But like the most stubborn of drowning men, Amir refused to clutch at the straws. “Ijaz practically pleaded with him for two hours, begging him to think of himself and the country; to come clean and make up for his mistake,” said a source. “But Amir was adamant that he hadn’t done it. He kept insisting that he hadn’t done anything so why should he admit to it.”
Early the next year, on January 6, 2011, the ICC Tribunal started its case in Doha, Qatar. Five days later, the trials come to an end but a judgement is reserved till February 5. On that day, the players are found guilty by the cricket governing body and are handed lengthy bans.
Amir receives a five-year ban. “We can’t say with certainty how long his ban would have been had he accepted the ICC’s terms but it would surely have been significantly less than the five years he received,” said a legal expert. “My personal guess would be that it would have been less than half of what he was given.”
Asif received a seven-year ban, with two years suspended, while Salman received a 10-year ban with five years suspended. In effect, all three players received a five-year ban but it could have been very different for Amir had he come clean. But by then it was too late.
Just a few days later, the young fast-bowler, once the darling of the nation, received a letter in his upscale Lahore DHA house, summoning him before the City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court on March 17 of that year at 10am. “Between the 15th day of August 2010 and the 28th day of August 2010 you conspired together with Mazhar Majeed, Mohammad Asif, Salman Butt and with others unknown to obtain and accept from Mazher [sic] Mahmood for yourselves the sum of £150,000 as an inducement or reward for doing an act in relation to the affairs of the Pakistan Cricket Board, namely to bowl three no-balls during the fourth Test at Lords [sic]. Conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payment, contrary to s 1 (1) of the Criminal Law Act 1977,” said the letter.
On February 26, Salman and Amir filed appeals with the Court of Arbitration of Sports in Lausanne, Switzerland, against their ban. On March 1, so did Asif.
In answer to the court summons, all four accused were presented before Chief Magistrate Howard Riddle, with proceedings initiated on behalf of the prosecution by Special Crime Division’s Sally Walsh, who “argued against unconditional bail for the three players and Majeed”.
However, considering the behaviour of the players, who had been making themselves available whenever summoned by the ICC Tribunal in Doha, and their ongoing appeal in the CAS regarding their ICC bans, the judge reached a decision.
The four main features of which have been copied directly from the court order:
1. Granted the players an unconditional bail but it is mandatory on them to be present in court on each and every date hearing, and they can also be called on a short notice to attend such hearing.
2. Observed that the allegations against the players were very serious with clear evidence against each of them and referred the case to Crown Court where the next date of hearing will be on May 20, 2011.
3. If the players failed to appear, the Court will proceed Ex-parte and the players can go to jail.
4. As far as Mazhar Majeed was concerned, his passport will continue to be in custody of Police as he was debarred from applying for a new passport.
On May 20, 2011, the Crown Court fixed October 4 of that year as the date of trial for the corruption charges.
Meanwhile, the revolving door policy of the trio’s legal counsel continued. By this time, famous human rights lawyer Gareth Pierce had taken over the case for Amir. Behind the scenes, Pierce and her “right-hand woman” British-born Pakistani Sajda Malik managed to do what Ijaz had not a few months ago.
On September 16, 2011, 19-year-old Mohammad Amir pleaded guilty via a written confession submitted to the Southwark Crown Court through Pierce’s firm Birnberg Peirce & Partners. It was the watershed moment in the case, the final nail in the coffin. The trial began on October 4 and it took less than a month for it to come to a conclusion.
On November 1, 2011, all three players and Majeed were found guilty by the Crown Court for the corruption charges filed by the Crown Prosecution Service and were awarded prison sentences.
“It is the insidious effect of your actions on professional cricket and the followers of it that make the offences so serious,” Justice Jeremy Cooke said to the defendants in his sentencing remarks. “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 and teeth to play at the levels and with the skills that you had."
Amir was sentenced to six months in prison, Asif 12 months, Butt 30 and Majeed 32. In addition, the players were ordered to compensate the prosecution’s costs, with Butt being ordered to pay £30,937, Amir £9,389 and Asif £8,120.
The NOTW was not compensated for the £150,000 that Mahmood gave to Majeed. "I consider that the NOTW got what it bargained for," said Justice Cooke.
Amir spent three months in the Portland Young Offenders Institute in Dorset before being released on February 1, 2012. Asif was sent to the HM Prison Canterbury in Kent before being released on May 3. Next month, on June 21, Salman — in the same facility as Asif — was released seven months into his sentence as lawyer Yasin Patel sought the application of the early removal scheme that saw him deported from England; leading to a 10-year ban from visiting the UK. “Under the early removal scheme, foreign national prisoners may be removed up to nine months before their normal release date, providing they are being deported from the UK,” confirmed a prison spokesperson.
The years passed slowly for the players and as Pakistan cricket continued to struggle, more than a several wistful glances were cast at the comforting imaginary scenario where the scandal had never taken place and the country had not been shorn of three of its best players.
Perhaps the most farcical bit of it all was that it is not even possible to bet on no-balls. “Majeed’s ignorance is stupefying. For a start he should have known that it is not possible for the ‘syndicate’ to place these ‘bets’ on a market that did not exist,” wrote Ed Hawkins in his book Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy. “Someone asking for odds for a no-ball from a bowler’s third ball of his third full over on the second day would have been laughed at by any bookmaker in India or anywhere else on the planet.”
Amir started appearing on morning shows and TV segments, where he slowly but surely started earning the forgiveness of the people by maintaining that he was coerced and forced into bowling those no-balls, and expressed incessant regret at having done so.
The PCB also realised the importance of Amir as the future of Pakistan cricket, especially with the media now seemingly behind him. “I was asked about him by the media in my very first press conference as chairman,” said former PCB chairman Najam Sethi. “So I talked to a few ICC people regarding it and while they agreed that Amir’s punishment was particularly harsh when compared to those of the other two, they said nothing can be done as the ICC needs to take a hard line and the five-year ban is the minimum punishment.”
So while the ICC agreed with Sethi’s point, legal constraints slammed the door shut for any further action. Sethi and the PCB then decided to bring an expert legal opinion on board and consulted a member of the esteemed British Queen’s Counsel, who told them that a case may be made for a change in the law.
Amir’s case was then brought up in an ICC meeting, with Sethi arguing that such cases could be appealed with the governing cricket body too.
The ICC agreed, allowing the PCB to get a foot through the door that had been previously slammed shut. “We filed an appeal with the ICC to allow Amir to return a year before the end of his ban,” said Sethi. “We argued that if he isn’t allowed to play any cricket before that then his five-year ban is effectively a six or seven year ban.”
On October 20, 2013, the ICC agreed to review Amir’s ban on the PCB’s request. By then, Amir had not only won the favour of the fans back home but also of the ICC, who considered him to be truly repentant of his actions and also allowed him some leeway due to his ‘impressionable age’.
There was always going to be one outcome of the appeal. But while the home board wanted Amir to return a year earlier, the ICC gave him only a six-month concession. On January 29 this year, Amir’s ban ended, with the then 22-year-old playing grade II cricket for Omar Associates and then featuring in the Super 8 T20 tournament for Rawalpindi Rams.
The ‘future of Pakistan cricket’, as he was once hailed, had returned.
The present
In one of the many grounds in Lahore’s Model Town, the 32-year-old Asif runs up to bowl in his familiarly languid style, wearing a white sweat-covered shirt and green and yellow shorts. The effortless bowling action is the same, and the young batsmen facing him, awestruck as they are, find it just as difficult to get bat on ball as the best batsmen of England, Australia, India and South Africa once did.
Asif famously brushed away suggestions that he would not be the same player five years down the line by stating that a fish does not forget to swim even if it is kept out of water for five years — how that fish will remain alive for that long is not the concern of a global sporting star.
Watching him bowl here bring back those remarks. He has been bowling for three hours and is clearly tired, but it is clear that his natural talent has not deserted him.
He seems relaxed, at ease with his surroundings. After squaring up the batsman with a particularly good delivery, one of the bystanders shouts, “Shabaash captaan [Well done captain]. He nods his head in acknowledgement and replies “Aahista aahista khud theek hojayeingi [Slowly the deliveries will fix themselves on their own].”
He is joking with the kids placed in the outfield. “Dusra kaisay keratay hain [How do you bowl the doosra]?” asks one of the more mischievous ones. “Butta kera ke [By chucking],” he replies in an instant with a smirk.
Harmless banter at the expense of a certain banned off-spinner, but it shows the sharp mind that once made him one of the most feared bowlers of the game. As always, he is relaxed enough to almost seem disinterested. “Acha sa likh dayna kuch bhi [Just write something nice],” he says, with yet another smile.
For now he is setting himself no goals, but it is clear by his demeanour he is quietly confident that the Asif of old will return. “I will play for Lahore in the upcoming season,” he claims. “Of course it will take me some time to find my rhythm, but eight or nine matches in, I should be fine.”
Unlike Amir and Salman, Asif is often cast neither as the innocent victim nor the conniving villain. He is just who he is, take it or leave it. He has flirted with controversy — well controversy and Veena Malik — often enough for the nation to know he is the Pakistani version of a Hell’s Angel, doing as he pleases, often testing the very limits of the law. But he has also achieved almost unparalleled cricketing heights often enough for the nation to tolerate him despite all his flaws.
“Have you been practicing your batting as well,” I ask, pointing at the bright pink bat handle sticking out of his kit bag, giving him the perfect opportunity to let people know how hard he is training as a way of showing remorse. Almost every fast-bowler fantasises about being a batsman, and Asif hilariously claimed his favourite shot was ‘anywhere for six’ during the 2007 World T20. It would have made sense for him to say that he has, to say he wants to return not only a better bowler but a better batsman too; the exact kind of glib oration the people love to lap up.
Instead, he smiles, and simply says, “Is main samaan to pura hi hota hai na [The kit bag just tends to have all the equipment], shakes my hand, exchanges pleasantries and walks off.
It is now five years to the day since that fateful NOTW article. The players are free to play again but the sport has changed a lot and they have been left behind.
It is clear that the abuse, the trial, the doubt, the imprisonment, the disgrace and the ban have all taken their toll on the players. They have insisted time and again after admitting their guilt that they have repented and are now rehabilitated.
Over the phone Salman sounds tired and weary, on the defensive. Of the three he has received the most flak and the least amount of sympathy. Perhaps justifiably so; he was the one from a privileged background, he had no need to do what he did, he was the captain of the side, he was the mastermind who convinced the others, he was the corruptor who whispered in their ears, and by his own confession to the ICC, “the ring leader”. It has caused him to be on the run for a long time now. He has been forced to keep changing his number time and again in order to avoid unwelcome calls.
He must be receiving many such calls, especially since the ICC’s confirmation that the players will not be serving their suspended sentence. “I can’t comment, I have been told in writing by the PCB to not talk about this,” he says.
If it is true, then he is justified in seeming eager to please the board; his slim chances of ever making an international return hinge on the whims of those who walk those corridors of power. If it isn’t true then, after fielding such questions for so long and from so many, it is one lie that he can be forgiven for.
The PCB backs Salman’s claim. “The two [Asif and Salman] have not yet finished their rehabilitation process,” says PCB Media Coordination and Implementation Director Amjad Hussain. “They will only be allowed to talk to the media once they have delivered the remaining lectures.”
But Asif refutes these suggestions. “The PCB only gives such instructions to players who are under contract. We aren’t,” he says.
Hussain warns the path back to international cricket will not be easy for them, and the board have set up a ‘road map’ for the players to follow; outlining its details to the players at a meeting on August 26 at the Gaddafi Stadium.
“They will first have to play Grade II and club cricket, rather than going directly into first-class cricket,” reveals Hussain. “Neither are they allowed to use the National Cricket Academy’s facilities yet.”
The length of this ‘road to redemption’ that the PCB has mapped out would surely have disappointed the three players.
Asif and Salman still need to deliver a few lectures regarding their spot-fixing experience to regional teams in order to be considered ‘rehabilitated’ by the board. “We will see after a while if the players are ready to make the step up to first-class cricket,” said Hussain.
That decision, however, will not be made on cricketing grounds alone. “The current squad and the respective captains will also be consulted in order to ensure that dressing room harmony is not affected,” he added.
There are those who believe the board doesn’t intend to allow the players, especially Salman and Asif, back into international cricket and are rather just fulfilling the formalities so that no questions are raised of them. Others believe it is the current players who have expressed their qualms regarding the return of these tainted men to the international fold. Still others think the players have served their time and now have as much of a right to be selected if they prove themselves worthy of it as any other player.
Whatever the case may be, these three, through no one’s fault but their own, are left to wearily pick up the pieces. It will be easier said than done and in the public’s eyes, they may forever remain the men who sold the world. But in Lahore the sun shines bright even amidst the August monsoon. It lasted five long years, but the storm is finally over.
The story was written by sports sub-editor Taha Anis and reported with the help of writer/consultant Emmad Hameed.
What action there was, was typical of Pakistan. A huge no ball — perhaps the biggest in international cricket since the advent of the front-foot rule — is bowled by Mohammad Amir on the first ball of his third over.
The Lord’s crowd does not react very well to it. They are here to witness cricket of the highest quality. Even a school boy would have been ashamed of this overstepping violation. Skipper Salman Butt runs in with some sawdust and sprinkles it on the landing crease so that Pakistan’s young prodigy does not slip again on the wet outfield as he runs up to bowl.
The sawdust works instantly. Amir makes up for it with a scorcher of a delivery the next ball. It takes the edge of Alastair Cook’s bat and flies straight to Umar Akmal at third slip. He drops it. The groans increase.
Only 12.3 overs could be bowled that day, with the score at 36-1. The highlight being Mohammad Asif’s unplayable delivery going through Andrew Strauss and hitting timber.
Sunshine and the prospect of an exciting day of cricket follow.
Amir runs through the England top order as if they are made of cheese, leaving them 47-5 before Matt Prior and Jonathan Trott consolidate to take them to 102-5. Amir bowls yet another huge no ball, this time to Trott.
He later claimed he did it deliberately, albeit for a different motive. “I remember Amir left the field after bowling that no ball, he returned and sat next to me in the dugout,” said fast-bowler Tanvir Ahmed, who was part of the squad but was not selected in the playing eleven. “I said to him, ‘Amir yaar itni bari no-ball, kia kar raha tha tu? [Amir that big a no ball, what were you doing?]’ He shrugged and said, “Yaar wo [Trott] phenti maar raha tha, mein ne socha iss ko dara kar backfoot pe karta hoon [He (Trott) was hitting us out of the park, I thought I will scare him and send him on the backfoot].’”
Trott was on 21 and England were 52-5.
Amir returns just after lunch, to devastating effect. Two wickets in four balls left England on the brink at 102-7.
Pakistan openers Imran Farhat and Yasir Hameed must have been preparing themselves mentally; they will be batting soon. They wait, and they wait, and they wait. The next wicket never comes. In its stead, a record unbeaten partnership between Trott and Stuart Broad adds 244 runs before the end of the day’s play. England 346-7 at stumps.
It is typical of England’s weather to follow up such a rain-filled day with one so pleasant. It is typical of Pakistan’s cricket to follow up such a bright start with a performance so dismal. The next day the visitors lose 14 wickets to mean that England just need to administer the last rites on day four. More pleasant weather from London, more dismal cricket from Pakistan.
And then comes the storm.
The scandal breaks
By the time the players returned to the Marriott Hotel Regents Park, where they were staying, they were still not over the humiliation they had suffered on the pitch.
“Ye kia hogaya hai, kaisay hogaya hai [What has happened here, how did it happen]?” muttered Salman Butt to no one in particular as the players waited for the elevator to get to their respective rooms.
It was about to get much worse.
A mere 13 kilometres away from the hotel, PCB lawyer Taffazul Rizvi is on his way to watch a film at a Harrow on the Hill multiplex cinema.
He is with a friend, who has just bought a new red Ferrari. They have parked the car in a multi-storeyed car park and are walking towards the cinema when Rizvi’s phone rings. It is Shafqat Rana, the team’s assistant manager.
“Aethay chappa paegaya, talashiyan ho rahi hain [The place has been raided, a search is going on].” The line drops.
More than the words, it is the panic in Rana’s voice that flusters Rizvi. He knows instantly something has gone horribly wrong. He can’t wait for his friend to get his Ferrari. There is no time for that, he opts to catch the next train instead. In the process the lawyer becomes perhaps the first man in history to think the London rail would be a quicker mode of travel than a Ferrari.
“I took the Metropolitan Line, which goes straight to Finchley Road,” said Rizvi, impeccably dressed in a blue shirt and matching tie, as we sit in his spacious Lahore office.
“I got off and ran the rest of the way. It took me around 20 minutes to get there and I couldn’t even dream that they would be here for something like that. The worst case scenario that I could possibly think of was that one of the guys had been driving someone’s car and had crashed it somewhere.”
The then PCB chairman Ijaz Butt, who was staying at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington, called him while he was on the train to explain what Rana had not. The rooms of three players — Amir, Asif and Butt — were being searched under suspicion of them being involved in fixing. Rizvi realised the seriousness of the matter immediately: fixing is prosecuted as a criminal offence in the United Kingdom.
“We were all in our rooms when I heard some commotion outside. I stepped out of the room to check what it was and saw security officers clad in suits walking around in the corridor,” said a member of the team, requesting anonymity. “I wasn’t sure what was happening then, but the news soon broke. It was like someone had pulled the rug from underneath us.”
By the time Rizvi arrived at the hotel, around half a dozen police officers in gloves and white overalls were already going through the rooms of Amir, Asif and Butt.
“Salman was visibly shaken by the raid and was being told to take deep breaths, but the other two seemed much calmer,” said a source present at the hotel at the time. “However, after a while Salman managed to grab a hold of himself and appeared much more relaxed.”
Another player mentioned how shaken up the skipper was. “It seemed like Salman would try and jump out of the window, so one officer had to guard the window and keep an eye on Salman while the others searched the rooms,” he said.
The head of the investigation, Deputy Superintendent Mathew Horne, informed Rizvi of why the rooms were being searched. “We were provided evidence by a newspaper, News of the World (NOTW), that shows that three Pakistan players were involved in spot-fixing,” said the detective.
Thinking quickly, as lawyers are known to do, Rizvi asked Massey how he could be sure that the newspaper hadn’t just given them the information regarding the no-balls after they had been bowled and that it wasn’t just a stunt to sell papers.
The answer was as simple as it was damning. NOTW had provided information of when the no-balls would be bowled before they had been bowled. Specifically Amir’s no-ball on the first ball of the third over of the match and the third ball of his third full over on day two, and Asif’s on the last ball of the tenth. All three no-balls were to be bowled on the first day but bad weather only permitted two of them to be bowled.
A phone conversation between Faisalabad-born bookie Mazhar Majeed and undercover NOTW reporter Mazhar Mahmood was later released by the NOTW in which the bookie warned the undercover reporter that Amir may or may not bowl a no-ball on the second day as the English wickets were falling too quickly. A wicket off a no-ball would highlight that delivery and may end up causing suspicion. Amir, however, ended up bowling that no-ball as well.
The police found around £30,000 in cash in the rooms of the three men; in American Dollars, Pound Sterlings and UAE Dirhams. The players — pacing nervously outside their rooms in the team’s official green and white tracksuits for the 3-4 hours that the police continued their search — claimed it was money that they had received from sponsorship deals.
Majeed, who had been secretly recorded promising that the no balls will be bowled before the Test even began? Just their agent, they claimed. “They just shrugged their shoulders when they were asked how Majeed could have known that no-balls would be bowled specifically on those balls,” added a source.
However, 50 £50 notes found from Salman’s room were from the same pile of notes that Mahmood had given to Majeed, while 30 of those £50 notes were recovered from Amir’s room.
The police, armed with a search warrant as well as a seizure warrant, seized the cash along with several other items. Having received sufficient incriminating evidence from the NOTW as well as from the players’ rooms, the officers decided the routine course of action would be to arrest them.
Ijaz Butt stepped in. He reasoned with Metropolitan Police Service Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick that the images of the three players — who in all likelihood would have been released on a police bail that same night according to a legal expert — being led away in handcuffs would be transmitted all over the world. The media would have had a field day and Pakistan’s name would have been tarnished and dragged through the mud. Even in the face of this debacle, it was a PR disaster everyone involved wanted to avoid.
Dick consented, on the condition that all three players will be available for interviewing whenever summoned. Butt agreed. In the meanwhile, chairman may have been hoping that the PCB could conduct an internal investigation into the matter.
But then a letter from Dick arrived on September 1, 2010. “As you know, we took the decision not to arrest any of the players when the enquiry commenced, a key part of that decision was that the players would make themselves available for interview at our request,” stated the letter. “We will need to interview these three players and I understand that arrangements are in place to ensure that they are available for interview.”
The letter seemed a formality, merely stating in writing what had been a verbal agreement two days ago. But then it continued, “In the UK, a police investigation takes precedence over any civil or disciplinary matters and I ask that you do not take any action that may prejudice any criminal enquiry. Action that could prejudice a future criminal prosecution could include interviewing players or witnesses or taking any account from them relating to the matter under investigation.”
The board’s hands were tied; they could not conduct an in-house enquiry into the matter.
In the meanwhile, all three players continued to “emphatically deny” the charges levied on them, both on an official capacity and also in private to their teammates and friends.
As expected, the front page of the next day’s NOTW had the now infamous picture of Mazhar Majeed with a stack of cash sprawled on the table in front of him. The word ‘caught’ simply written in white block letters as the headline. Inside, the story ran with the headline, ‘No ifs and Butts’ over nine page. The news of the raid had been making the rounds all over the world by now; this just made it official. The scandal was out in the open.
In its backdrop, the entire team was left in a state of confusion and chaos, and cricket took a definite backseat. The next morning, what proved to be the final day of the match, it was decided in the team meeting that the players will take to the field directly without warming up.
On the way to the ground, the team bus was greeted by a raucous mob outside Lord’s, who shouted slogans and hurled insults at the players for sullying the sport’s reputation. Traitor and sell-out were among the more flattering words hurled at them. It was just the beginning of what would be an entire series of confrontations and abuse.
By then the players were merely going through the motions. “Of course it was a shock and despite the fact that the team management appeared strong on paper, they totally crumbled under pressure,” said another member of the squad, requesting anonymity. “We had sort of given it [the match] up; we couldn’t concentrate, there was no plan, and one batsman followed another back to the dressing room, the fight and focus had totally deserted us.”
The players could be forgiven for being in such a state of mind. “We were all desperately worried about our future,” he continued. “Here we were in an alien country with security and police all around us, and we kept thinking to ourselves, ‘Are we going to be behind bars?’”
Tanvir summed up the mindset of the team at the time. “My room wasn’t searched, we all had single rooms, but I didn’t meet or speak to anyone during that time,” he said. “That night, my mother called me because she had heard on the news that the entire team had been arrested. I told her that wasn’t the case and then quickly hung up since I didn’t know if my phone was also being tapped without my knowledge.”
The aftermath
On September 2, 2010, less than a week after the NOTW article, the ICC announced a provisional ban on all three players. They were charged with "various offences under Article 2 of the ICC Anti-Corruption Code for Players in relation to the Lord's Test".
A few days later, on September 6, the players visited the Pakistan High Commission in Knightsbridge and also claimed their innocence to High Commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan, who was named as the contact person for the initial proceedings. The news of the players’ visit had somehow reached the public and a crowd had gathered outside the premises, armed with rotten tomatoes and eggs.
In order to avoid any unpleasant scenes, a decoy car was placed in front of the high commission and the crowd was asked to step a little further away in order to make it seem that the players were about to leave. Having thus distracted the crowd, the players secretly left through a back exit that led to an alleyway where a car was waiting for them.
Facing such strong public backlash at every turn, the trio wanted to return home as soon as possible. However, considering the seriousness of the allegations levied on them, the Scotland Yard was understandably reluctant to let them leave for Pakistan. Once again, Ijaz was called into action. He asked the Pakistan government to step in and with the help of the foreign office was able to get permission for the players to return to Pakistan on the condition that they will present themselves whenever summoned.
On September 11, 2010, the players arrived at the Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore. Just like at the high commissioner’s office, they were forced to leave through a back exit in order to avoid the rowdy crowd that had gathered to greet them.
18 days later, Salman became the first of the three to appeal his provisional ban; the other two followed suit soon after. However, on October 22 of that year, Asif realised the futility of an appeal and withdrew it.
Salman, in the meanwhile, continued to deny the allegations, even to his own counsel and insisted on appealing the ban. “On record and even off the record he always maintained he hadn’t done it, even to us,” claimed lawyer and former Test cricketer Aftab Gul, a friend of Salman’s father Zulfiqar Butt and his legal counsel at the start. “But there was no longer any conviction in his denial. It was almost like a tacit admission of guilt.”
Gul, however, wasn’t part of the legal battle for long. “Ijaz and I had our differences, so he threatened Salman that the PCB would stop supporting him if he hired me as his lawyer,” he claimed. “But since I have known Salman all my life, he wanted me there so we decided to bring along another lawyer, Dr Khalid Ranjha, along with myself to appease Ijaz.”
That arrangement, too, did not last very long. “Aitzaz Ahsan stepped in and wanted to take over the appeal, so I stepped back,” he said. “However, their appeal [of the provisional ban] was so poorly drafted that it was dismissed the same afternoon.”
Even being doomed from the start did not hinder the takers from this legal battle. “There is a lot of fame and money in sports litigation,” explained Gul. “We received calls from as far away as South Africa from legal firms hoping to get in on the action.”
But an army of lawyers would have found it difficult to win what was as open-and-shut a case as they get. “They had already made up their minds,” said Gul. “But to be fair, the decision they made was absolutely correct; the evidence was just too damning to begin with for any other decision to be possible. There was nothing anyone could have done.”
On the last day of the month, Amir and Salman’s appeals were rejected. Four days later, on November 4, the PCB cancelled the players’ central contracts. The pieces continued to fall apart.
But with things going from bad to worse, Amir was offered an olive branch and a chance for redemption by the ICC. His lawyer, a now Lahore High Court judge, received a letter in which the governing board had stated the proposed deal. All Amir had to do was come clean and he would be treated leniently; his age being the crucial factor in the offer. But like the most stubborn of drowning men, Amir refused to clutch at the straws. “Ijaz practically pleaded with him for two hours, begging him to think of himself and the country; to come clean and make up for his mistake,” said a source. “But Amir was adamant that he hadn’t done it. He kept insisting that he hadn’t done anything so why should he admit to it.”
Early the next year, on January 6, 2011, the ICC Tribunal started its case in Doha, Qatar. Five days later, the trials come to an end but a judgement is reserved till February 5. On that day, the players are found guilty by the cricket governing body and are handed lengthy bans.
Amir receives a five-year ban. “We can’t say with certainty how long his ban would have been had he accepted the ICC’s terms but it would surely have been significantly less than the five years he received,” said a legal expert. “My personal guess would be that it would have been less than half of what he was given.”
Asif received a seven-year ban, with two years suspended, while Salman received a 10-year ban with five years suspended. In effect, all three players received a five-year ban but it could have been very different for Amir had he come clean. But by then it was too late.
Just a few days later, the young fast-bowler, once the darling of the nation, received a letter in his upscale Lahore DHA house, summoning him before the City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court on March 17 of that year at 10am. “Between the 15th day of August 2010 and the 28th day of August 2010 you conspired together with Mazhar Majeed, Mohammad Asif, Salman Butt and with others unknown to obtain and accept from Mazher [sic] Mahmood for yourselves the sum of £150,000 as an inducement or reward for doing an act in relation to the affairs of the Pakistan Cricket Board, namely to bowl three no-balls during the fourth Test at Lords [sic]. Conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payment, contrary to s 1 (1) of the Criminal Law Act 1977,” said the letter.
On February 26, Salman and Amir filed appeals with the Court of Arbitration of Sports in Lausanne, Switzerland, against their ban. On March 1, so did Asif.
In answer to the court summons, all four accused were presented before Chief Magistrate Howard Riddle, with proceedings initiated on behalf of the prosecution by Special Crime Division’s Sally Walsh, who “argued against unconditional bail for the three players and Majeed”.
However, considering the behaviour of the players, who had been making themselves available whenever summoned by the ICC Tribunal in Doha, and their ongoing appeal in the CAS regarding their ICC bans, the judge reached a decision.
The four main features of which have been copied directly from the court order:
1. Granted the players an unconditional bail but it is mandatory on them to be present in court on each and every date hearing, and they can also be called on a short notice to attend such hearing.
2. Observed that the allegations against the players were very serious with clear evidence against each of them and referred the case to Crown Court where the next date of hearing will be on May 20, 2011.
3. If the players failed to appear, the Court will proceed Ex-parte and the players can go to jail.
4. As far as Mazhar Majeed was concerned, his passport will continue to be in custody of Police as he was debarred from applying for a new passport.
On May 20, 2011, the Crown Court fixed October 4 of that year as the date of trial for the corruption charges.
Meanwhile, the revolving door policy of the trio’s legal counsel continued. By this time, famous human rights lawyer Gareth Pierce had taken over the case for Amir. Behind the scenes, Pierce and her “right-hand woman” British-born Pakistani Sajda Malik managed to do what Ijaz had not a few months ago.
On September 16, 2011, 19-year-old Mohammad Amir pleaded guilty via a written confession submitted to the Southwark Crown Court through Pierce’s firm Birnberg Peirce & Partners. It was the watershed moment in the case, the final nail in the coffin. The trial began on October 4 and it took less than a month for it to come to a conclusion.
Salman Butt's phone call record
Muhammad Amir's phone call record
On November 1, 2011, all three players and Majeed were found guilty by the Crown Court for the corruption charges filed by the Crown Prosecution Service and were awarded prison sentences.
“It is the insidious effect of your actions on professional cricket and the followers of it that make the offences so serious,” Justice Jeremy Cooke said to the defendants in his sentencing remarks. “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 and teeth to play at the levels and with the skills that you had."
Amir was sentenced to six months in prison, Asif 12 months, Butt 30 and Majeed 32. In addition, the players were ordered to compensate the prosecution’s costs, with Butt being ordered to pay £30,937, Amir £9,389 and Asif £8,120.
The NOTW was not compensated for the £150,000 that Mahmood gave to Majeed. "I consider that the NOTW got what it bargained for," said Justice Cooke.
Amir spent three months in the Portland Young Offenders Institute in Dorset before being released on February 1, 2012. Asif was sent to the HM Prison Canterbury in Kent before being released on May 3. Next month, on June 21, Salman — in the same facility as Asif — was released seven months into his sentence as lawyer Yasin Patel sought the application of the early removal scheme that saw him deported from England; leading to a 10-year ban from visiting the UK. “Under the early removal scheme, foreign national prisoners may be removed up to nine months before their normal release date, providing they are being deported from the UK,” confirmed a prison spokesperson.
Amir’s return
The years passed slowly for the players and as Pakistan cricket continued to struggle, more than a several wistful glances were cast at the comforting imaginary scenario where the scandal had never taken place and the country had not been shorn of three of its best players.
Perhaps the most farcical bit of it all was that it is not even possible to bet on no-balls. “Majeed’s ignorance is stupefying. For a start he should have known that it is not possible for the ‘syndicate’ to place these ‘bets’ on a market that did not exist,” wrote Ed Hawkins in his book Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy. “Someone asking for odds for a no-ball from a bowler’s third ball of his third full over on the second day would have been laughed at by any bookmaker in India or anywhere else on the planet.”
Amir started appearing on morning shows and TV segments, where he slowly but surely started earning the forgiveness of the people by maintaining that he was coerced and forced into bowling those no-balls, and expressed incessant regret at having done so.
The PCB also realised the importance of Amir as the future of Pakistan cricket, especially with the media now seemingly behind him. “I was asked about him by the media in my very first press conference as chairman,” said former PCB chairman Najam Sethi. “So I talked to a few ICC people regarding it and while they agreed that Amir’s punishment was particularly harsh when compared to those of the other two, they said nothing can be done as the ICC needs to take a hard line and the five-year ban is the minimum punishment.”
So while the ICC agreed with Sethi’s point, legal constraints slammed the door shut for any further action. Sethi and the PCB then decided to bring an expert legal opinion on board and consulted a member of the esteemed British Queen’s Counsel, who told them that a case may be made for a change in the law.
Amir’s case was then brought up in an ICC meeting, with Sethi arguing that such cases could be appealed with the governing cricket body too.
The ICC agreed, allowing the PCB to get a foot through the door that had been previously slammed shut. “We filed an appeal with the ICC to allow Amir to return a year before the end of his ban,” said Sethi. “We argued that if he isn’t allowed to play any cricket before that then his five-year ban is effectively a six or seven year ban.”
On October 20, 2013, the ICC agreed to review Amir’s ban on the PCB’s request. By then, Amir had not only won the favour of the fans back home but also of the ICC, who considered him to be truly repentant of his actions and also allowed him some leeway due to his ‘impressionable age’.
There was always going to be one outcome of the appeal. But while the home board wanted Amir to return a year earlier, the ICC gave him only a six-month concession. On January 29 this year, Amir’s ban ended, with the then 22-year-old playing grade II cricket for Omar Associates and then featuring in the Super 8 T20 tournament for Rawalpindi Rams.
The ‘future of Pakistan cricket’, as he was once hailed, had returned.
The present
In one of the many grounds in Lahore’s Model Town, the 32-year-old Asif runs up to bowl in his familiarly languid style, wearing a white sweat-covered shirt and green and yellow shorts. The effortless bowling action is the same, and the young batsmen facing him, awestruck as they are, find it just as difficult to get bat on ball as the best batsmen of England, Australia, India and South Africa once did.
Asif famously brushed away suggestions that he would not be the same player five years down the line by stating that a fish does not forget to swim even if it is kept out of water for five years — how that fish will remain alive for that long is not the concern of a global sporting star.
Watching him bowl here bring back those remarks. He has been bowling for three hours and is clearly tired, but it is clear that his natural talent has not deserted him.
He seems relaxed, at ease with his surroundings. After squaring up the batsman with a particularly good delivery, one of the bystanders shouts, “Shabaash captaan [Well done captain]. He nods his head in acknowledgement and replies “Aahista aahista khud theek hojayeingi [Slowly the deliveries will fix themselves on their own].”
He is joking with the kids placed in the outfield. “Dusra kaisay keratay hain [How do you bowl the doosra]?” asks one of the more mischievous ones. “Butta kera ke [By chucking],” he replies in an instant with a smirk.
Harmless banter at the expense of a certain banned off-spinner, but it shows the sharp mind that once made him one of the most feared bowlers of the game. As always, he is relaxed enough to almost seem disinterested. “Acha sa likh dayna kuch bhi [Just write something nice],” he says, with yet another smile.
For now he is setting himself no goals, but it is clear by his demeanour he is quietly confident that the Asif of old will return. “I will play for Lahore in the upcoming season,” he claims. “Of course it will take me some time to find my rhythm, but eight or nine matches in, I should be fine.”
Unlike Amir and Salman, Asif is often cast neither as the innocent victim nor the conniving villain. He is just who he is, take it or leave it. He has flirted with controversy — well controversy and Veena Malik — often enough for the nation to know he is the Pakistani version of a Hell’s Angel, doing as he pleases, often testing the very limits of the law. But he has also achieved almost unparalleled cricketing heights often enough for the nation to tolerate him despite all his flaws.
“Have you been practicing your batting as well,” I ask, pointing at the bright pink bat handle sticking out of his kit bag, giving him the perfect opportunity to let people know how hard he is training as a way of showing remorse. Almost every fast-bowler fantasises about being a batsman, and Asif hilariously claimed his favourite shot was ‘anywhere for six’ during the 2007 World T20. It would have made sense for him to say that he has, to say he wants to return not only a better bowler but a better batsman too; the exact kind of glib oration the people love to lap up.
Instead, he smiles, and simply says, “Is main samaan to pura hi hota hai na [The kit bag just tends to have all the equipment], shakes my hand, exchanges pleasantries and walks off.
It is now five years to the day since that fateful NOTW article. The players are free to play again but the sport has changed a lot and they have been left behind.
It is clear that the abuse, the trial, the doubt, the imprisonment, the disgrace and the ban have all taken their toll on the players. They have insisted time and again after admitting their guilt that they have repented and are now rehabilitated.
Over the phone Salman sounds tired and weary, on the defensive. Of the three he has received the most flak and the least amount of sympathy. Perhaps justifiably so; he was the one from a privileged background, he had no need to do what he did, he was the captain of the side, he was the mastermind who convinced the others, he was the corruptor who whispered in their ears, and by his own confession to the ICC, “the ring leader”. It has caused him to be on the run for a long time now. He has been forced to keep changing his number time and again in order to avoid unwelcome calls.
He must be receiving many such calls, especially since the ICC’s confirmation that the players will not be serving their suspended sentence. “I can’t comment, I have been told in writing by the PCB to not talk about this,” he says.
If it is true, then he is justified in seeming eager to please the board; his slim chances of ever making an international return hinge on the whims of those who walk those corridors of power. If it isn’t true then, after fielding such questions for so long and from so many, it is one lie that he can be forgiven for.
The PCB backs Salman’s claim. “The two [Asif and Salman] have not yet finished their rehabilitation process,” says PCB Media Coordination and Implementation Director Amjad Hussain. “They will only be allowed to talk to the media once they have delivered the remaining lectures.”
But Asif refutes these suggestions. “The PCB only gives such instructions to players who are under contract. We aren’t,” he says.
Hussain warns the path back to international cricket will not be easy for them, and the board have set up a ‘road map’ for the players to follow; outlining its details to the players at a meeting on August 26 at the Gaddafi Stadium.
“They will first have to play Grade II and club cricket, rather than going directly into first-class cricket,” reveals Hussain. “Neither are they allowed to use the National Cricket Academy’s facilities yet.”
The length of this ‘road to redemption’ that the PCB has mapped out would surely have disappointed the three players.
Asif and Salman still need to deliver a few lectures regarding their spot-fixing experience to regional teams in order to be considered ‘rehabilitated’ by the board. “We will see after a while if the players are ready to make the step up to first-class cricket,” said Hussain.
That decision, however, will not be made on cricketing grounds alone. “The current squad and the respective captains will also be consulted in order to ensure that dressing room harmony is not affected,” he added.
There are those who believe the board doesn’t intend to allow the players, especially Salman and Asif, back into international cricket and are rather just fulfilling the formalities so that no questions are raised of them. Others believe it is the current players who have expressed their qualms regarding the return of these tainted men to the international fold. Still others think the players have served their time and now have as much of a right to be selected if they prove themselves worthy of it as any other player.
Whatever the case may be, these three, through no one’s fault but their own, are left to wearily pick up the pieces. It will be easier said than done and in the public’s eyes, they may forever remain the men who sold the world. But in Lahore the sun shines bright even amidst the August monsoon. It lasted five long years, but the storm is finally over.
The story was written by sports sub-editor Taha Anis and reported with the help of writer/consultant Emmad Hameed.