Pakistan cricketers Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir will begin their defence today, the second day of the anti-corruption hearing taking place in Doha, Qatar.
It will be a tough day for the three after reports coming out yesterday suggested that they had all given different accounts about the instances under the scanner of the International Cricket Council Tribunal.
According to leaks from the hearing and a report by the BBC on Friday, Amir and Butt seemed confused about how Mazhar Majeed had predicted to the News of the World the exact timing of the no-balls in question. Meanwhile, Asif claimed he had over stepped the line after being instructed by the then captain Butt to bowl a faster delivery.
It seems like a good start for Asif as his opening statements yesterday seem to be well thought out. It’s interesting to note here that the umpires officiating in the Lord's Test match against England in August 2010 had a similar view of the no-balls and the incidents now in question.
“There had been the big overstep in particular and in our minds that was more a deliberate overstep to have a go at Trott, who had been batting so well,” umpire Tony Hill had said in a interview in September 2010.
But the ICC, which finished making its case yesterday, believes the huge cache of evidence from the tabloid News of the World tells another story.
Proceedings yesterday were dominated by the presentation of more evidence by the ICC and the examination of all prosecution witnesses who attended the hearing.
Pakistan's Twenty20 and ODI captain, Shahid Afridi, and their coach, Waqar Younis, appeared via teleconference. This was the second instance the pair appeared before the tribunal after they had recorded their statements in Dubai during Pakistan’s series against South Africa in October-November of last year.
The ICC, however, is said to be relying extensively on the evidence the News of the World gathered in their operation.
It is also believed that reporter Mazhar Mahmood, who broke the story, will be present during the entire proceeding.
