Banned Pakistani trio to appear before British court in July

A British court has order banned Pakistani trio, Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, to attend their trial in July. This will be a preliminary hearing of the case filed against them by the Crown ProsecutionServices (CPS) for their alleged involvement in spot-fixing scandals.

The trio did not appear in Southwark court for a hearing on May 20.

The three players were banned by the anti-corruption tribunal of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in February after corruption charges against them were judged to be true. Each player was granted a different period of punishment.

A British judge, James Sanders, have ruled that the trio will have to ensure their availability for the July hearing.

 A news report reveals, “The judge has ordered in a note that the trio be presents in person, or, by video link for the preliminary hearing”.

Though the trial is set to open in July, the regular hearing will start on October 4.

The trio did not attend the May 20 hearing on the advice of their lawyer.

During a Test match against England in August 2010, the three players were found to be deliberately underperforming. The News of the World broke the story and after initial investigations, the players’ agent,Mazhar Majeed, was found to be the spearhead of corruption.

As per the report, Majeed accepted $242,000 to steer the players to underperform.

The three players allegedly delivered no-balls to garner defeat for their team. This was taken as a spot-fixing practice.

One of the three offenders, Butt, was leading the team in that match.

This scandal has brought great disrepute to Pakistan cricket. The image of both the board and the players has been tarnished.

However, Team Pakistan missed the trio greatly during their ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 campaign. A majority of Pakistanis and players believed that were the trio present in the team, Pakistan would have won the World Cup.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has now devised a code of conduct for the players and their agents in order to avert such type of corruption in future.

Some experts argue that the trio is unlikely to attend the July trial as they consider their punishment as unfair and unjust.

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PCB keeps the banned trio out of anti-corruption lectures

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is deliberately keeping the banned-trio, Muhammad Aamir, Muhammad Asif and Salman Butt, away from the anti-corruption lectures arranged by the board to educate all cricket officials, staff and players about match-fixing and spot-fixing practices. They are liable to do so as per international rules.
The board is avoiding the inclusion of the trio in any activity since their matter is still under scrutiny and the decision to their appeal pending, but the critics term it as a biased policy.
The trio was banned by the anti-corruption tribunal of the International Cricket Council (ICC) after they were found and proved to be involved in spot-fixing practices during a series against England last year. The ban was imposed on the 5^th of February, 2011.
Following the ban, the trio filed review appeals with the International Court of arbitration for Sports and the court decision is still pending.
Thus, the appeal to their conviction is still not finalized as Wasim Bari, the head of the educational program of PCB, says, “Since the matter is subjudice we cannot even comment of it and we are not including them at any level now”.
The PCB has been under severe pressure from the international cricketing fraternity since the eruption of the fixing scandals and it has taken some positive steps recently to avert such type of corruptions in future.
A code of conduct has been devised for the player’s agents and all the players are put under strict scrutiny during their international commitments. This educational program is another revolutionary and reformative step to root out corruption that has played a key role in sanctioning international cricket in Pakistan.
The educational program, launched last month, includes lectures, question & answer sessions, and circulation of manuals containing guidelines and the code of conduct of PCB.
Bari says, “We are holding the lectures in Urdu language and the manual is also in Urdu so that the players and coaches can understand things properly”.
Most of the cricket analysts and experts are strongly recommending the inclusion of the banned trio in the educational program in order to keep them away from such type of heinous activities in future.

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