Banned stars to be heard next year

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The Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) will hear, next February, the appeals of banned Pakistan cricketers Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif against the ICC’s bans for spot-fixing, reported ESPNcricinfo. Asif’s case will be heard between February 5-7, and Butt’s on the 8th, it was confirmed on Monday.
The CAS, headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, is recognised as the world’s highest judicial body for sportsmen and cases involving sport.
Asif, along with Butt, was found guilty at Southwark Crown Court in November 2011, on charges of conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to accept corrupt payments over deliberate no-balls bowled during the Lord’s Test between Pakistan and England in August 2010. Mohammad Amir, the third player accused by the Crown Prosecution Service, had pleaded guilty to the charges. Butt served seven months of a 30-month jail sentence, Asif six months of a year-long term, while Amir spent three months in a young offenders’ institute.
However, the three players had already been found guilty by an ICC tribunal on February 5, 2011, and were banned for various durations. Butt’s ban was for 10 years and Asif’s for seven. That punishment was announced a day after the CPS levied its charges against the players.
Butt had also wanted to lodge an appeal with the International Criminal Court, but decided against it due to the expense involved and the lengthy duration of the proceedings.