Butt and Asif guilty in cricket match-fixing scandal

Former Pakistan Test captain Salman Butt and fast bowler Mohammad Asif were found guilty on Tuesday of involvement in a ‘spot-fixing’ betting scam during a match against England last year. Both had pleaded not guilty. 

Reuters/Philip Brown

Prosecutors claim that they conspired with British agent Mazher Majeed and fast bowler Mohammad Aamer to deliver three intentional no-balls during the Lord's Test between Pakistan and England in August 2010.

Majeed, 36, and Aamer, 19, were also charged with the same offences but were not standing trial alongside Butt and Asif.

The pair were charged after allegations about their involvement in spot-fixing appeared in the now-defunct News of the World tabloid, owned by Australian-born media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, shortly after the Lord's Test.

Butt and Asif sat in silence in the dock as the jury delivered their verdicts, after spending nearly 17 hours in deliberations over four days at court. The jury have not yet decided whether Asif is guilty of the second charge of conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments.

The pair could face jail sentences of up to seven years.

During the three-week trial the jury heard that vast sums of money could be made by rigging games for betting syndicates, particularly in South Asia, and that the problem was theatening the game of cricket.

Butt told the court that he had ignored his agent's requests to fix games and had no knowledge of the plan to bowl no balls, while admitting that he had failed in his duty to inform cricketing authorities of Majeed's approach.

Asif meanwhile said he had bowled a no ball at the exact time the agent had predicted to the News of the World journalist because Butt had told him to run faster moments before his delivery.