Former Pakistan Test cricketers Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif will be free to return to competitive cricket on 1 September, the worldwide Cricket Council has confirmed.
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The ICC didn’t elaborate what conditions both Asif and Butt fulfilled.
A tribunal headed by Michael Beloff QC imposed an additional two-year suspended ban on Asif and an additional five-year suspended ban on Butt, who were criticised in the aftermath for failing to show contrition. Butt, a 30-year-old batsman who captained the side, averaged over 30 in his 33 test matches.
“Consequently, if they should commit any further act of corrupt conduct they are liable to (i) further separate disciplinary proceedings for breaches of the relevant Code or rules and (ii) in the case of Asif and Butt and where such breach occurs during the suspended part of their original period of ineligibility, the activation of that suspended period of ineligibility”.
President Ehsan Mani has called Pakistans u-turn about playing a tri-series against West Indies and Zimbabwe, as simply not cricket and going against the spirit of the game.
Left-arm fast bowler Amir received the shortest of the bans – five years – during the independent anti-corruption tribunal in Qatar. Butt will now turn out for the Lahore Blues in the upcoming domestic T20 cup, where Blues will play the qualifying round.
Their co-conspirator Mohammad Amir has already returned to domestic cricket having been given dispensation by the ICC, and will become available for worldwide duty on the same date – just over a month before England play Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates.
The three players, as well as their agent Mazhar Majeed, were also convicted for their wrongdoings in a London court.
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The ICC statement said the trio would remain under the glare of its anti-corruption unit.
