For my second post of the day, I thought I'd comment on one of the days biggest news pieces, and a sport very close to my heart.
The sentencing took place today of 3 Pakistani cricketers and a sports agent for match fixing. The 4 men appeared before Mr. Justice Cooke, at the Southwark Crown Court for sentencing following a lengthy trial of 3 of the Defendants which culminated in guilty verdicts being delivered on Tuesday. (The agent having plead guilty at an earlier hearing).
The charges stemmed from match fixing allegations with regards to the 4th Test Match of the summer 2010 series of England v Pakistan. An undercover reporter for the News of the World filmed the sports agent, Mazhar Majeed predicting exactly when 2 Pakistani bowlers would bowl no balls and collecting 150,000 GBP in cash as a result of the prediction.
The bowlers found to be guilty of bowling the no balls were Mohammed Amir and Mohammed Asif. The trial had heard that the chances of someone correctly predicting when 3 no balls would be bowled was around 1.5 million to 1.
The team captain at the time, Salman Butt was also found guilty of match fixing, as he was paid to ensure that the correct bowlers were bowling at the right time.
Sentencing all 4 defendant's to immediate custody, Mr. Justice Cooke said:
"The image and integrity of what was once a game but is now a business is damaged in the eyes of all, including the many youngsters who regarded you as heroes and would have given their eye teeth to play at the levels and with the skills that you had".
Salman Butt was sentenced to 30 months in prison, Mohammed Asif 12 months, Mohammed Amir 6 months and Mazhar Majeed 32 months.
As Mr. Justice Cooke remarked "It's not cricket" - and it's certainly hard to disagree.
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