If you’re waiting to here an official verdict on the three Pakistani players who have been slapped with spot-fixing charges, you’ll have to wait until February 5th. A six-day meeting in Doha, Qatar didn’t come to a decisive conclusion on the various corruption charges that Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir are faced with. Right now, the players are being kept under a very watchful eye and all are provisionally suspended for the time being.
The incident stems from two Tests in England last summer, which possibly includes the Oval and Lord’s Tests.
The six-day hearing turned out to be fairly anti-climatic as a lot of fans and onlookers were expecting a result after nearly a week of deliberations. But the tribunal had not come to a conclusion and in fact stated that to come to a tangible conclusion and put it to paper could not be reasonably completed in that amount of time.
If proven guilty, the players could face a suspension ranging anywhere from five years to life, so the tribunal wants to make sure that their decision is airtight.
Part of why the public is a bit frustrated is because the hearing has taken place behind closed doors and no comments were made to the media until the hearing was fully completed.
Right now, the waters are somewhat murky as Asif and Butt appear to have contradicting defenses, which could be one of the reasons why the tribunal needs some extra time to untangle what exactly happened in the two Tests late August.
There haven’t been many odds up on this type of event but those doing props and betting picks at BetUs are leaning towards the judges finding them guilty. There’s rarely this type of smoke without a fire.