How Sweet It Is!

Mohammad Amir

How Sweet It Is!

And who could blame young Mohammad Amir for celebrating? It's not like anything really comes easy for the Pakistan boys.

Pakistan cricket trio are unlikely to face criminal charges

• Butt, Asif and Amir should escape criminal charges
• 'Spot-fixing' players set to face officials tomorrow

The Pakistan cricketers Mohammad Amir, left. and Salman Butt leave the team hotel in Taunton. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Legal experts with direct experience of other sports integrity cases believe it is highly unlikely the three cricketers will face any criminal charges.

"One of the massive problems in any sport is defining how you actually define what is happening as criminal," Neill Blundell, the partner and head of the fraud group at the law firm Eversheds, who acted for one of the defendants in the Kieren Fallon case, said.

"What they often have difficulty doing is evidentially linking what is going on with the betting. If all you've got is one person saying certain things, it can be very difficult to link that behaviour to what is going on on the pitch, even if it seems logical to do so."

Blundell, who represented Fallon's co-defendant Miles Rodgers against charges of conspiracy to defraud, said the police and prosecutors would tread carefully following a string of high-profile cases in which they had failed to make charges stick.

"Proving that link beyond a reasonable doubt is very difficult to do. What might appear strong evidence initially can be very difficult for a law enforcement agency. As has been proved by other similar cases, proving guilt and making evidence admissible can be very difficult."

Others sports integrity experts said that because it appeared no bet had actually been placed, it was difficult to see how a charge of conspiracy to defraud – the route most expect the police to go down – or the untested offence of cheating introduced in the 2005 Gambling Act could be made to stick against the players.

Rick Parry, the former Liverpool FC chief executive who chaired a government-ordered review of sports integrity issues, agreed. "I don't think [the case] has any evidence at all," Parry told CricInfo. "Unless the News of the World placed a bet – which would be highly unlikely because in so doing they would have carried out a criminal act – then there doesn't appear to be any betting activity at all associated with these particular allegations. It places the ball, to pardon the pun, squarely back into the hands of the cricket authorities."

Mazhar Majeed, the 35-year-old Croydon businessman at the centre of the News of the World allegations, who was alleged to have told the Pakistan players to deliberately bowl no balls in return for £150,000, was arrested on Sunday and released on bail. Today it emerged Majeed had been arrested as part of a separate money-laundering investigation by Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs.

With the players unlikely to face criminal charges, there is greater onus on the next move of the ICC's anti-corruption and security unit. The ACSU has been in constant communication with the police and will pool evidence it has collected over several months with that garnered by the News of the World and law enforcement agencies. Its investigators will not question the players directly until police give them the go ahead to do so.

Haroon Lorgat, who arrived in London today to meet the PCB chairman, Ijaz Butt, said he expects the ICC's investigation to come to "some sort of conclusion" by the weekend. England face Pakistan in the first of two Twenty20 matches on Sunday, when it is understood the News of the World is planning to publish further revelations.

Reports in India today contained further details of the ASCU's investigation into spot-fixing claims against Pakistan players. The Times of India claimed it wa examining recordings of conversations and text messages exchanged between Pakistan players and Majeed even during the Twenty20 World Cup in the West Indies.

There's only one Imran

Whether in cricket or in politics, corrupt leaders – bar notable exceptions – are often all Pakistan has

Poor Pakistan. Floods of biblical proportions; millions homeless; a president who pretends to be shocked by cricket's latest betting scandal when his own persona is the embodiment of corruption. A prime minister shedding crocodile tears because of the cricketing "shame" rather than tending to allegations that flood-relief money has gone missing. And now a sleep-walking cricket captain attempting to deny the ugly truth, but without real conviction, hoping against hope that he will ride out the crisis like others before him and that his bosses in Pakistan's cricket establishment will cast a veil over this one as well.

Even if guilty, Salman Butt and his vice-captain Kamran Akmal will try to give the appearance of having no idea of the seriousness of the allegations and will try to talk their way back, hoping, as in the past, that after a few gentle raps on the knuckles they can revert to business as usual. That would be a real tragedy, a green light to semi-legalise match fixing, and not just in Pakistan.

The Pakistan Cricket Board is a long-standing joke, its chairmen replaced with every change of government. The current boss, Ijaz Butt, is the brother-in-law of Pakistan's defence minister, a crony of President Zardari. The International Cricket Council and the England and Wales Cricket Board – somewhat pathetic bodies dominated by political and financial interests respectively – should not fudge this one. Whether Pakistan batting collapses were psychological or based on material interests we still do not know. But the moral collapse of this team stares all cricket-lovers in the face. Any perpetrators should be on the next plane home and the ringleaders given life bans. If guilty, the teenage bowling sensation Mohammad Amir should be banned for some years. His idol, Wasim Akram, is not the best role model on this front.

Some of the media comments on this affair are interesting, but irrelevant. Yes, WG Grace was a cheat on and off the field. Yes, captains of other teams – India and South Africa – have engaged in similar practices. Yes, the betting syndicates are a major part of the problem. So what? Since when has one crime justified another? How many times have I heard apologists for corrupt Pakistani politicians justifying their pillage by arguing that Europe and America also have corrupt politicians. The problem is that in Pakistan that's all we have, with few exceptions – one of whom is Imran Khan, who was also Pakistan's finest and most incorruptible captain.

The rotten core of Pakistani cricket long predates the emergence of Zardari and the present bunch of rogue politicians. There have been three semi-judicial inquiries since the 80s, the last of which, presided over by Justice Qayyum in 2000, suggested that allegations of match-fixing in Pakistan began when Asif Iqbal was captain (1979-80). He was said to have lost the toss against India, simply informing his surprised counterpart that he'd won – somethign Asif has denied.

From then onwards the cancer grew and grew. Players like Basit Ali and Rashid Latif, who refused to join the racket, testified before Qayyum as to its scale and spread. Latif, a good wicketkeeper, had taped conversations between key players and the betting syndicates. They were subsequently blackballed by the cricketing establishment. This was light punishment. A bookie who testified to the inquiry and fled to South Africa was cornered and killed in brutal circumstances.

The captain is crucial to the whole enterprise. Without him serious fixing is difficult: hence the bookies' dislike of Shahid Afridi. If the one-day series goes ahead, Afridi should insist on picking an untarnished XI, regardless of experience. Better to lose genuinely than on the say-so of the betting mafia.

Qayyum did not find the three superstars Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Inzamam guilty of specific acts, but all were criticised and fined small amounts. The genial if slow-witted Yawar Saeed, team manager during some of those scandals – and this one – was "of the view that all the members of the team showed 100% commitment and were not involved in match-fixing". It appears to be still his view. Waqar is now coach of the current team. Was he totally unaware of what was going on?

Forgiving these guys for wrecking our enjoyment of cricket is difficult enough. I now have a personal grudge as well: for the first time ever I was forced to buy and read the News of the World.

Cricket must put its house in order fast

The British press has expressed shock, disappointment, anger and a sense of betrayal over the Pakistan spot-fixing allegations. All agree that the damage to the game has been enormous, and that if anyone is found guilty, punishment should be exemplary.

The Guardian, in an editorial, says that even a decade after the Hansie Cronje affair, the devastating claims of fixing still hold up.

That Mohammad Amir, a precocious talent, is at the heart of the current allegations is particularly damaging. Cricket must put its house in order fast. Nothing undermines the credibility of any sport more than the suspicion that what you are watching is in fact a fix.

The Independent says that a country like Pakistan, where people look up to cricket for moral inspiration, deserves better than to have it rubbed in that cricket is not devoted to fair play. Just getting rid of a few rotten apples won’t solve the problem, vigilance is the only way forward.

Indeed, this whole saga is very sad. It is damaging to the reputation of cricket, and is another blow to Pakistan, a country that is still partly under water and desperately in need of good news. Misgoverned for decades, it has a political class that contains few people whom anyone seriously looks up to for moral inspiration – hence, in part, the almost fanatical devotion to a sport that supposedly incarnates the ideal of fair play.

Nasser Hussain, in the Daily Mail, finds it hard to believe that the issue is only about a few no-balls. He says that if people can be involved in spot-fixing, it can also lead to more ominous stuff.

And the worry is that this is merely the tip of the iceberg. I find it hard to believe that we’re just talking about a few no-balls. I’m not pointing fingers at individuals but if guys get sucked into so-called spot-fixing, it can lead to more sinister stuff.

One minute you’re conceding a prearranged number of runs in a bowling spell, the next you’re throwing an actual match — and this fixer is now saying the Sydney Test against Australia in January was thrown.

Jonathan Agnew, in his BBC column, wonders how people will react if they see Mohammad Amir or Mohammad Asif bowling a no-ball in the Twenty20 international in Cardiff on Sunday. He wants a thorough investigation into the affair.

The game cannot afford for this to be swept under the carpet and if that means Pakistan, when this tour comes to an end, must serve a temporary exile from international cricket then so be it.

In the case of Amir, who is 18, it is terrible that a supremely talented youngster could be exposed to this. He is a delightful bowler with terrific skills. How sad it would be if it turns out his career is wrecked, but if anyone is involved in corruption he must be banned for life.

Dileep Premachandran in his Guardian blog feels that the malaise can be traced to the low wages the Pakistan players receive compared to their IPL-playing Indian counterparts. He also says that the Qayyum inquiry a decade ago had a chance to cleanse the system, but it merely absolved some of the biggest names.

In 2000, Qayyum recommended that "the PCB increase the pay of its cricketers and develop for them more avenues of income ... Pakistani players for all their talent are not as well-paid as their counterparts abroad. As long as they are underpaid the tendency to be bribed remains."

Michael Vaughan, in the Telegraph, feels the ODI series can wait but the game deserves to be cleaned up first. He says what happened is good for cricket in a way because the administrators now have nowhere to hide.

The future will hold some pretty uncomfortable questions for the Anti-Corruption Unit at the International Cricket Council. Why has it taken a British newspaper sting to bring it out in the open? What has the ACU been doing? It has operatives working all over the world and the ACU costs the game millions. But a British newspaper story has blown it open. It is embarrassing.

Ramiz Raja, in the Telegraph, does not think a lack of money is the reason. He blames the mentality of quick-fix which is due to a lack of leadership in Pakistani society.

It is about how an individual approaches life. What he wants to be and how he wants to live. When money is thrown on the table some people will say 'take it away and get out'. Others will take the money. It is about dishonesty, not how much you are being paid.

Cricket needs to use its TV-generated wealth to zealously monitor the game, writes Peter Preston in theGuardian. Ceremonial bans will achieve little.

You won't, in short, solve anything by draconian bans, by wiping whole nations from the cricketing map. You need to target the pushers. Pakistan, in yet another way, needs help and understanding – not ritual rage.

The PCB has allowed a culture to develop that has continued to tarnish the game, says Martin Samuel in theDaily Mail. This culture has now claimed one of the brightest talents cricket has seen, Mohammad Amir, as collateral damage.

Too many trusting men allowed themselves to be mesmerised by the myth of Pakistan cricket, its mood swings, its brilliant highs and devastating lows. They were spellbound and did not spot that the truth was considerably nastier, more grimly depressing.

A riveting battle continues

A riveting battle continues

A new potential great on our hands© PA Photos

Another day, another collapse. Time to panic about the England middle order and how they will fare in the forthcoming Ashes. Or perhaps not.

A few weeks ago, after Pakistan collapsed at Lord's in their ‘home’ Test against Australia, I offered the opinion that had their bowlers had the opportunity to bowl in similar conditions, they would have skittled Australia for under a hundred. Though I was pooh-poohed by several commenters, mostly presumably Australians, Ponting's men proved me triumphantly right at Headingley later that week. Twice now in similar circumstances, England have at least managed three figures, which clearly proves that they are a better batting side than Australia and are therefore hot favourites to retain the Ashes. QED. And if you believe that, you'll believe anything.

In fact, all the intelligence we have gained about the Ashes is that if the conditions are heavily overcast and damp and Mohammad Amir turns up to bowl with a shiny red Duke ball, whichever side has picked him is going to have a huge advantage. Since none of those circumstances will obtain, what we have learned about the series to come is precisely nothing.

What we have learned about the series in progress, though, is that I was wrong about Jimmy Anderson being the world’s No. 1 bowler whose primary weapon is moving the ball in the air. (Those who commented along the lines of “What about Dale Steyn?” can perhaps recognise that Steyn's primary weapon is pace and that if he moves the ball in the air, it's a bonus.) I can only plead that Amir is so new on the scene that I thought it premature to promote him to the top spot, but what I've seen this summer has wholly convinced me that we have a new potential great on our hands. ‘Potential’ because so much can happen to a player during a career - particularly a pace bowler, a breed permanently at risk of injury or burnout – but right now he is as splendid a bowler as you could wish for.

I like a bit of strokeplay here and there in a Test but as a contrast to the all-too-common tedious run-fests in which the bowler has no chance, this series has been wonderful cricket. Both teams have spent most of each Test battling their way back into the game: during the last Test, Cricinfo's end-of-day headline every evening was ‘X, Y put Pakistan on top’ but they were nowhere near as dominant as that might imply. Just before they collapsed on the third afternoon, England were set fair to put up a target of well over 200, which Pakistan's pursuit of just under 150 showed would have been hard indeed to chase down.

As I write, Jonathan Trott and Stuart Broad are bringing some semblance of respectability to England's first innings – and it is a pleasure to see Broad recovering his batting even if his antics in the field give little to approve of – so there is still all to play for. Travails with a dishwasher (you don't want to know) have prevented me getting to the ground today, but I'm eagerly looking forward to the weekend's play. And may the team which plays best win.