…jurors asked to try for majority decision
JURORS hearing the trial of Mohammad Asif and Salman Butt, who are accused of match-fixing, have been unable to reach a unanimous decision.
The jury has now been asked by the judge to try to come to a majority verdict of 10-2 as a result of the current indecision.
Former Pakistan Test captain Salman Butt, 27, and paceman Mohammad Asif, 28, are alleged to have plotted to bowl deliberate no-balls in last summer’s Lord’s Test against England.
The jury of six men and six women has heard over three weeks of evidence that there are huge sums to be made by fixing cricket matches for gambling syndicates.
The pair were charged after an undercover reporter recorded sports agent Mazhar Majeed, 36, boasting of how he could arrange for Pakistan players to rig games for money, London’s Southwark Crown Court heard.
Prosecutors allege that Butt and Asif conspired with Majeed and Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Amir, 19, to deliver three intentional no-balls during the Lord’s Test between Pakistan and England from August 26 to 29 last year.
The agent was secretly filmed accepting £150,000 in cash from the journalist as part of an arrangement to rig games.
Butt and Asif deny conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to accept corrupt payments.
The allegations emerged after the News of the World’s former investigations editor, Mazher Mahmood, approached Majeed in August last year pretending to be a wealthy Indian businessman seeking major international cricketers for a tournament. (Eurosport)