Judgment day looms for Pakistani trio

LAHORE – he fate of the Pakistan cricket’s tainted trio is likely to be decided on Tuesday (today) as the ICC’s hearing into the spot-fixing allegations moves towards conclusion.
Mohammad Aamir was cross-examined by the ICC lawyers on Monday and the tribunal members will give final touches to the verdict which is likely to be announced today.
It has been learnt that the ICC examined the phone record of the players.
Earlier, Salman Butt amd Mohammad Amir were quizzed by the tribunal members and now the tribunal will hear the closing statements from the ICC and lawyers for Salman, Asif and Amir. The day four of the hearings, taking place in Doha, Qatar, began with the completion of the cross-examination of former captain Butt by the ICC’s lawyers.
The focus then shifted to Amir who presented his defence. He was first questioned by his lawyer Shahid Karim before Jonathon Taylor and Ian Higgins, the ICC’s lawyers, began their questioning. Amir used an interpreter, who was present throughout the hearing. Asif is the last of the three to give evidence in his defence today before the closing arguments. A three-man panel, chaired by Michael Beloff Queen’s Counsel, will then retire to deliberate on verdicts.
In the ‘NOW’ document it is understood there are details of numerous phone calls and texts involving the players and Mazher Mahmood. The ICC are hoping that further corroboration from telephone records obtained from the police investigation will make their case against the players very strong.
The prosecution are also hoping to clear up a suggestion by the Pakistan High Commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan. He said that the News of the World recorded Majeed’s “predictions” of no balls on the first day of the Lord’s Test, after it was all over.
It is expected independently sourced telephone records will confirm the paper’s story. Scotland Yard had told Sky News that files detailing its investigation, separate from the ICC’s, are “currently with the Crown Prosecution service for a decision”.
It is believed that the broad strategy of Amir’s defence relies on the burden of proof being on the ICC to prove their case.
Indications are that a previously unblemished disciplinary record, and his youth might be used argument in Amir’s case.
Nevertheless, Amir’s day of questioning is thought to have been neither disastrous nor outstanding for his prospects. But it has been learnt that the cases of Butt and Asif could be vital to how events turn out for Amir.
In their opening remarks on the first day, it was reported by the BBC that Asif and Butt’s reasons behind the no-balls allegedly bowled in the Lord’s Test differed. It also emerged that Butt, as well as being cross-examined by the ICC’s lawyers, was also questioned by Asif’s lawyer Alexander Cameron. Significantly, Amir was not questioned by either Butt’s or Asif’s lawyer on Sunday. Butt’s own defence had what was described as a “tough” cross-examination on Saturday.
There are suggestions also that the questioning of one particular witness by Butt’s lawyer Yasin Patel earlier in the hearing may have hurt his client’s stance.
In any case, the situation is likely to become clearer on Monday, when Asif begins his defence and will presumably be open to questioning by the ICC as well as Patel.
Butt and Amir left together at the end of a day that extended nearly half an hour beyond its scheduled time.
Asif, as has become usual, was the last to leave and he arrived on Sunday nearly one and a half hours before the hearing began at its scheduled time of 9 30am.
After Asif completes his defence, both the ICC and the players’ lawyers will be expected to make their closing statements before the three-man tribunal of Michael Beloff QC, Justice Albie Sachs and Sharad Rao deliberate over the verdicts. It has been learnt that both Amir and Asif have adopted the stance that they followed their captain’s orders in the fourth Test against England at Lord’s. Butt is under the greatest pressure in the hearing as he was the captain of the team when the spot-fixing scandal broke out.
Sources in the Pakistan cricket Board said that the greatest concern was for Amir who is a prodigious talent to come about in Pakistan cricket. “The feeling is that even if Amir gets a two-year ban it would be mean he would be available for Pakistan at the relatively young age of 20 as his sentence should start from the time the ICC provisionally suspended the trio on September 2 last year,” another source said. If the players are cleared of the charges, they are widely expected to be included in Pakistan’s preliminary squad for the 2011 World Cup.
The suspended trio have been charged under the International Cricket Council’s code of conduct. They have said they are innocent. The players are accused of accepting payment for bowling no-balls at prearranged times in a test against England in August at Lord’s. The ICC has described the allegations as the sport’s biggest fixing scandal in decades.