Salman, Aamir to leave for Doha to know their fate

KARACHI: Pakistan`s suspended cricketers Salman Butt and Mohammad Aamir will leave for Doha on Thursday to find out the outcome of the spot-fixing case, a decision on which will be announced by ICC`s Anti-Corruption Tribunal on Feb 5.
The third suspended player — pace bowler Mohammad Asif — will fly to Doha directly from London.
“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 Aamir 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,” Shahid said.
The three players were suspended on Sept 2 last year on allegations of spot fixing in the fourth Test at Lord`s during Pakistan team`s tour to England.
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.