London: British sports journalist Ed Hawkins has questioned the authenticity of a decision on Pakistani trio—Muhammad Asif, Muhammad Amir and Salman Butt—and writes in his upcoming book, citing various bookies, that “it is not possible to bet on the timing of a no-ball”.
His new book “Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy: A Journey to the Heart of Cricket’s Underworld” is due to be published on November 15.
He tries to prove with various examples that the court was not aware of the spot-fixing process.
“The court was not aware. The judge was not aware. This much is clear from the erroneous sentencing remarks by the Hon Mr Justice Cooke: ‘Bets could be placed on these no-balls in unlawful markets, mostly abroad, based on inside advance knowledge of what was going to happen…’” Mail Online quoted an excerpt from his book.
Moreover, an Indian bookmaking told the author that ‘It seemed clear to me that they [Asif, Aamir and Butt] had been scammed’.
Meanwhile, talking to a Pakistani news channel, Asif claimed that allegations leveled against him and his fellows were the biggest conspiracy framed by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
He said he was never involved in any sort of spot-fixing.
The test cricketer said that the blame put on him, Amir and Salman Butt was imposed by force and that the jury had made the decision ‘under pressure’.
He said he knew such revelations pertaining to the case would come in near future.
Asif said that the court that sentenced the three did not know that ‘no-balls do not qualify for spot-fixing’ and, therefore, the cricketers should be made free of the blame.
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