Amir, Asif, Butt and Majeed face jail time – Cricket News Update
After weeks of agony for the Pakistani trio, their faith has been finally decided by Justice Cook, who handed jail sentence to all three players, along with renowned bookie, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mazhar-c75448 Majeed.
Majeed earned the highest penalty as he was sentenced for 2 years and eight months, followed by former Men In Green skipper, Salman Butt, who will be serving 30 months.
The other two involved, namely http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mohammad-Amir-c76675 was given a 6-month sentence by the judge.
The verdict was handed out on a frenzy morning, which saw the media surrounding the courtroom as the judge handed out his final verdict to all charged parties. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Salman-Butt-c2418 was the first to receive his marching orders when he was found guilty on charges of conspiracy to cheat, accept and obtain corrupt payments.
“It's clear you were the orchestrator of these matters," Justice Cooke told Butt. "You had to be to make sure these two bowlers were bowling at the time of the fix."
In shorter expression the Judge effectively claimed that Butt’s playing days are over and added that Butt had been the orchestrator of the whole incident, and therefore dismissed his plea of leniency.
The second verdict was handed out to Asif, who was charged of conspiracy to cheat after no money was found in his possession at the time the spot-fixing event occurred.
Though Majeed and Amir had pleaded guilty just prior to the trial - the judge had sympathies only for the young fast bowler; however, he could not avoid sentencing the young prodigy.
The event under focus was the infamous Test match between http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 at Lord’s last year, where the now non-operational News of the World in a sting operation, accused Amir and Asif of bowling pre-arranged no balls.
It has indeed been a lesson for the cricketing world, and especially for those looking to make quick money from the sports. The initial words of Justice Cook is certainly a reminder for everyone, who ever tries to spoil the beauty of cricket.
"Now, when people look back at a surprising event in a game or a surprising result or ever in the future there are surprising results, followers of the game who have paid to watch cricket or who have watched cricket on TV will wonder whether there has been a fix or what they have watched was natural," said Cook.
Though the players' actions called for such harsh penalties, it is surely a saddening day for cricket fans world over.
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