The fate of Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif and Salman Butt will be sealed by the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) tribunal as the hearing into the spot-fixing scandal concludes in Doha on Tuesday.
Fast bowler Mohammad Asif will be the last of the three Pakistan players to be questioned at the hearing, all of whom are suspected of being involved in spot-fixing during Pakistan’s tour of England last summer.
Asif was expected to open his defence against the allegations on the fifth day of the hearing, after former Test captain Salman Butt and Mohammad Amir had already presented their cases on Saturday and Sunday.
Teenage fast bowler Amir, on Sunday, is believed to have relied on his clean record, his age and the premise that he was instructed by Butt to bowl the said no-ball.
On the day he opened his defence against the allegations, Amir arrived at the Qatar Financial Centre dressed in a t-shirt that read “legalise cannabis” and jeans, a stark difference from his formal dressing on the first two days.
Butt, meanwhile, closed his defence early Sunday. According to a report on ESPNCricinfo (www.espncricinfo.com), the left-handed batsman was cross-examined by Asif’s lawyer on the fourth day, in addition to being questioned by the ICC lawyers and his own lawyer, Yasin Patel. The report suggests a difference in the lines taken by the former captain and his strike bowler, Asif.
It remains unclear what basis Asif will form in his defence against the allegations as he presents his case to the three-man tribunal.
The tribunal, headed by Michael Beloff QC, is expected to come to a conclusion on Tuesday.
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.
