Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt denied ever asking Mohammad Asif or Mohammad Amir to cheat and bowl pre-planned no-balls, a court heard on Friday during the eighth day of the alleged spot-fixing trial in London.
“There’s no way I could tell Amir or Asif (to cheat),” Butt said in a police interview played to the court. “They are the two players that most teams would want to have. When we pick our team those are the first two names that we have to write.” The jury at Southwark Crown Court heard a transcript of police interviews with Butt in September last year, shortly after the publication of an undercover investigation into alleged corruption by the Pakistan cricketers and Majeed, released in the News of the World.
The transcript was read out in role play format between policeman at the time Detective Constable John Massey and Sarah Whitehouse for the prosecution. Butt sat in the dock, wearing a dark grey jacket and royal blue shirt, following a printed transcript of the interview. He was sandwiched by Asif and a female interpreter. In the first police interview, in which Butt attributed Majeed’s predictions of the no-balls coming true as “a freak occurrence”, he denied ever accepting money for corrupt purposes. Butt also said Majeed had no influence over him as the agent had boasted during the News of the World investigation.
“I don’t think anybody could influence me to cheat my country,” Butt said. “I play this game for the love of the game and for the love of my country.” He added: “I have played at all levels for Pakistan and in ten years of playing for Pakistan I have never had any charge against me. This is the first time I have had a charge (against me).” He also denied knowing of a culture of cheating in the Pakistan team. Butt said he had been happy with Majeed as his agent because he brought him generous earnings from endorsements outside of his cricket duties. These included payments of £16,000 and £30,000 for endorsing Majeed companies Blue Sky and Capital Cricket.
Butt also was heard to say on the tapes that Majeed arranged a sportswear and cricket equipment deal for him with Adidas that earned him £800 per international match plus bonuses. “He brought me things like the Adidas contract,” Butt said, “which was a big thing to me as no other Pakistani had that.” The opening batsman also revealed how Majeed had “talked about” a potential sponsorship agreement with Tag Heur watches, in which he would received a new £3,000 watched every three months, plus money after six months. A contract with a shoe company was also discussed that would see his name sewn into the shoes.
Butt and Asif are facing charges of conspiracy to cheat, and conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments, following the Lord’s Test in August last year when they allegedly conspired with Majeed, teenage fast bowler Amir and other people unknown to bowl pre-determined no-balls. Butt and Asif deny the charges. Majeed had at least 27 bank accounts: Agent Mazhar Majeed had bank overdrafts of more than £700,000 and at least 27 bank accounts, a court heard on Friday in the ongoing alleged spot-fixing trial involving Pakistan cricketers Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif.
As the prosecution neared a conclusion to its evidence on the eighth afternoon of the trial, policeman Detective Constable Steven Blake from the Special Investigations Unit at New Scotland Yard, gave detailed information of Majeed’s financial situation when probed by the case’s junior prosecutor Sarah Whitehouse and Ali Bajwa QC, Butt’s legal representative. Majeed was recorded on a secret camera accepting two separate amounts of £10,000 and then £140,000 from an undercover journalist working for the News of the World to assist with cheating involving Pakistan cricketers. That money was marked by the investigators.
The jury heard that Majeed had two accounts with the Allied Irish Bank, three accounts with the Clydesdale Bank, one account with the Royal Bank of Scotland-owned Coutts, one account with Barclays and as many as 21 accounts with the NatWest Bank – with 13 of those closed by the time of the police investigation but eight were still active. One of those NatWest accounts was £497,949 overdrawn. Bajwa, who has already sought to discredit Majeed previously in the trial, probed Blake further and confirmed with him in front of the court that his total overdraft debt was worth £704,043. He also revealed records of other multiple closed accounts with the HSBC Bank, prior to the case in question.
Alexander Milne QC, the barrister of Asif, re-established the point, while Blake was in the witness box, that no marked money belonging to the News of the World was found in Asif’s hotel room when it was raided by police (£2,500 of marked money was found in Butt’s room and £1,500 of marked money in Amir’s room). He also confirmed that Asif had no Swiss bank account, as Bajwa also did, though Blake explained that it was difficult to investigate the presence of Swiss bank accounts. Blake also said that of the £150,000 handed over by the newspaper, £104,300 is yet to be recovered.
Butt and Asif, clients of Majeed’s, are facing charges of conspiracy to cheat, and conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments, following the Lord’s Test in August last year when they allegedly conspired with the agent, teenage fast bowler Mohammad Amir and other people unknown to bowl pre-determined no-balls. Butt and Asif deny the charges. Cricinfo
