NEWS ANALYSIS – This verdict was, or should have been, expected. Whatever one said – the tainted threesome and their lawyers, the gallery, the conspiracy theorists and the all-too-interested international and local media – it was an open and shut case the moment it was established that the NOTW sting was actually prior to the predetermined no-balls. That was the smoking gun, the rest was auxiliary stuff, including where the huge hoard of cash found in Salman Butt’s room had actually come from.
In the backdrop of that premise, once the agonizing waiting part was over, and the sentencing came, my first reaction was that the ICC Tribunal had actually been lenient on the errant trio. Actually all three have been allowed to walk. Salman Butt has been sentenced for 10 years, Mohammad Asif put out for seven and the baby amongst the three, Mohammad Aamir for the mandatory minimum, five.
But there is the catch of ‘suspended sentences’, which in case of Butt is five and in Asif’s two – making it an even five for all three. The criminal case that they have to answer to in a British magistrate’s court is both a distraction and a threat, but theoretically the ICC tribunal has left the possibility of return open for all. This contingent on the behaviour of the three: no further breaches of the ICC’s Code of Conduct and participation in the anti-corruption education.
But realistically only Aamir has the chance of making it back to international cricket. Whether the others, Butt and Asif, would survive the stigma to persevere and claw their way back when the ban expires in their early thirties seems rather uphill. Another factor: in a country which despite its woeful management is known for throwing up impeccable natural talent, retaining value at such an age is a difficult ask
Of the two, Asif is a real loss, as for a medium pacer he was a virtuoso, one of a kind performer regardless of the turf or the opposition. But then a serial offender, he tempted fate once too often and this time round it was not kind on him. A line close to the end of the verdict suggests how sympathetic the tribunal was to this otherwise clean-cut phenomenon of a youthful left-armer who could contrive to produce the magic that made green with envy the best left-armer ever to have graced a cricket field, the redoubtable Wasim Akram.
As if in a tone dripping with regret, the tribunal “has recommended to the ICC certain changes to the Code with a view to providing flexibility in relation to minimum sentences in exceptional circumstances”. The tribunal so obviously was not oblivious of Aamir’s youth and the fact that his ineligibility meant a loss to world cricket. All said and done, it is a sad, traumatic moment for Pakistan cricket. But in a way we had it coming for so long.
Though this dispensation has been by far the worst, none prior to this was wholly equipped to run an enterprise as significant as the PCB. Pakistan cricket has the depth in raw talent and the resilience to bounce back swiftly. Despite depletion, our ranks are already displaying that with their performance they can produce their own version of shock and awe. Only if someone could shook up the PCB and make it match that!
