LAHORE – As the D-Day for the tainted trio approaches, one of the three players Mohammad Aamir has started training to prepare for the next month’s World Cup. It is believed that the International Cricket Council has indicated that Aamir and Mohammad Asif might be exonerated while Salman Butt is likely to bear the brunt.
Salman, Asif and Amir were alleged to have accepted payment for bowling no-balls at pre-arranged times during the fourth Test against England at Lord’s last August. The claims were made in a report by the News of the World. “It’s probably a matter of weeks,” was the response of a Crown Prosecution Service spokesman when asked how much longer the trio – and the alleged fixer Mazhar Majeed – must wait to discover their fate on the possibility of criminal wrongdoing.
It brings the prospect of a decision by the CPS being delivered hard on the heels of verdicts from an inquiry launched by the ICC. The CPS received a second file of evidence from the Metropolitan Police on November 5 after the cricketers and Majeed had been released on bail.
It is understood that Majeed’s bail extends into early March. But it would seem a decision by the CPS on whether to prosecute the men after Michael Beloff – chairman of the ICC tribunal – announces his verdicts on February 5 in Doha.
The trio appeared before the ICC independent tribunal in Doha earlier this month and the decision regarding their appeal will be announced on February 5. Mohammad Amir was the key player of Pakistan outfit and Pakistan cricket team will need his services for the mega event starting next month.
However, Aamir was seen in playing practice match at Rawalpindi cricket stadium under the supervision of one of the coaches employed by Pakistan Cricket Board Sabih Azhar. The PCB has already announced 15-man squad for the World Cup but can make changes in the squad if any player gets unfit.
The ICC already clarified that the trio can take part in the World Cup if they are declared innocent by the ICC independent tribunal led by Michael Beloff, QC.
PCB seeks details of match
LAHORE – The PCB has taken notice of reports that suspended pacer Mohammad Amir had bowled a few overs in a practice match in Rawalpindi. “The board has asked for details of the said match from its officials in the Rawalpindi regional cricket academy,” a board official said.
“It is not clear as yet whether the match between the Army team and Rawalpindi was organised by the PCB regional academy or was a private fixture,” reports said. Under the regulations of the ICC a suspended player cannot take part in any match, event or activity organised by his home
board or its affiliated units.
Sabih Azhar, a coach at the PCB academy in Pindi admitted that Aamir had bowled in the match. “I was not present when this happened but when I came back to the ground I came to know he had bowled a few overs for the Army side,” PTI quoted Azhar as saying. But the coach claimed that the match was not organised by the regional academy and was a private and friendly fixture. Staff Report
