ICC Bans 3 Pakistani Cricketers After Hearing in Doha

Doha, February 06 (QNA) - The International Cricket Council (ICC) banned three Pakistani cricketers from playing the game for corruption following a marathon hearing held at the Qatar Financial Centre's Civil and Commercial Court here, The Peninsula reported Sunday.
Former captain Salman Butt, fast bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were banned for ten, seven and five years respectively for colluding in a spot-fixing betting scam organised by British-based agent Mazhar Majeed.
The trio faced charges related to incidents of bowling 'no-balls' during a Pakistan-England Test match played at Lord's last year from August 26 to 29.
The head of ICC tribunal Michael Beloff yesterday announced the verdict after a nine-hour hearing.
The Tribunal found that charges that Asif agreed to bowl and did bowl a deliberate no-ball in the Lord's Test match and Aamer agreed to bowl and did bowl two deliberate no-balls in the same match while captain Butt was party to the bowling of those deliberate no-balls were proved, said Beloff.
The betting scam was exposed by Britian's News of the World newspaper which said the concerned players were willing to deliberately bowl no-balls.