Karachi: Pakistan`s suspended cricketers Salman Butt and Mohammed Aamer will leave for Doha tomorrow to find out the outcome of the ICC hearing into spot-fixing case against them and the decision of the anti-corruption tribunal would decide which direction their careers would go. The third suspended player - pace bowler Mohammad Asif - will fly to Doha directly from London.
Michael Beloff the head of the tribunal is scheduled to announce the verdict of the tribunal on the spot-fixing allegations against the three suspended players on Saturday at a press conference.
"We have no comments to make on the verdict at this stage because we don`t know what the decision is going to come from the tribunal," Shahid Karim the lawyer for Aamer said.
He said any decision about appealing against the verdict of the three-member tribunal would be taken later on. "The rules stipulate that if the players are not happy with the verdict against them they can approach the Court of Arbitration of Sports and appeal the verdicts of the tribunal and that option is always available to us," Karim said.
The three players were suspended on September 2 last year during the national team`s tour to England on allegations of spot fixing in the fourth Test at Lords.
In January, they attended a six-day hearing convened by the ICC tribunal which announced it was deferring the decision to February 5. An official in the Pakistan Cricket Board said that until now the board had no role to play in the case.
"We ourselves don`t know what the outcome of the case is going to be and the tribunal does not inform anyone including the ICC about its decision until it is announced," he said.
He said if the tribunal decides to impose financial penalties on the players then it would be up to the board to ensure the players made the payments. "That is why the board has withheld some payments of the players," he said.
Well-informed sources said that on basis of the six-day hearing proceedings in Doha indications were that the players could be get varying terms of bans and financial penalties and Aamir because of his age might escape with a lighter sentence.
"If they are banned, their cricket careers would be finished and they can`t take part in any cricket activity or event at all," another source added.
PTI
