5 years for Butt, Asif & Amir

That's as good as finished for Butt & Asif but Amir could be back playing by the time he's 26/7..... should've been life bans for all of them

I can just about stomach a five year ban for Amir, but five year bans for the other two is an affront to anyone who loves the game. ICC - utterly incompetent fools.

Apparently Vawn Tweated that they should've got life. I heartily agree with him.

ICC sending out a message there that match-fixing - in what ever form - will absolutely, positively not be tolerated... more than a little bit.

5 year ban on M Aamer is very harsh and justice has NOT been done. Gibbs for example had a MUCH lighter ban.

3 year ban would have been fair.

dickjs

seems like they got off pretty easy. in effect everyone gets a 5 year ban since butt and asif have 5 and 2 years suspended

i thought a life ban was what was expected when the icc said it would be a punishment to dissuade others. not even one life ban. thats pretty terrible

will be hard for any of them to come back though with no competitive cricket for 5 years

Not long enough for any of them.

The ICC is soft as.

As captain, Butt should have got life as match fixers need the captain 'on board' for any of this to happen.

Interesting to see if legal proceedings go ahead in England.

Amir -

Two no-balls should not be given five years' punishment, and I wasn't expecting it

Not just a cheating qunt, he's a stupid cheating qunt.

PlanetPakistan wrote:5 year ban on M Aamer is very harsh and justice has NOT been done. Gibbs for example had a MUCH lighter ban.

3 year ban would have been fair.

They obviously took due note of Gibbs not being responsible for his actions on account of being a moron.

But mainly 'aw diddums'.

The qunts in Pak cricket including some ex-players are more pissed off at PCB for not 'supporting and guiding' the cheats than the punishment itself.

Ex cricket officials lambast PCB for deserting tainted trio - Link!

This is the opinion of a guy who served as no less than ICC President - -

"Morally I think Ijaz Butt should resign after the bans on these players. The board mishandled this case from the start and allowed the ICC to take matters into its own hands," former ICC President Ehsan Mani said.

"If the board had first taken the spot-fixing allegations against these players seriously and suspended them and sent them home from England and then allowed them to hire top legal help, this situation would not have transpired.

"I feel bad for the players but they did something wrong and got punished. They still should not have been abandoned by the board," Mani added.

I would have thought the PCB chairman should resign for turning PCB into such a corrupt morass and certainly not for failing to protect corrupt players. Obviously things work min anti-thesis of accepted norms in Pak cricket.

Yeah - things have reached a pretty pass when some idiot just stands back and lets the International Cricket Council administer Cricket iat an International level. WTF next?

Did anyone REALLY expect anything else?

Of course the ICC was never going to be decisive and firm.

I think the clear message for players here is:

If you ARE going to risk cheating for the sake of making money, make sure you make MORE money than you would have done in the paltry five years for which you're likely to be banned if caught. Do it for big bucks or don't do it at all. Also, you're best off doing it early in your career so that you've still time to come back. Finallly, always deny the charges (even when it's completely obvious to everyone that you're guilty). Blatant lying and a total lack of remorse will not add significantly to your punishment for cheating and ruining the game, and many of your fans will still love you.

But hang on, arent they being told to fly to the UK to face criminal charges?

They could still all go to jail........

Yeah, but the point is the cricket authorities need to deal with things strongly, they can't rely on the criminal justice systems of 9 or 10 different countries (or more, given that the West Indies is a number of separate nations!) That's the easy way out.

Butt should have been made an example of like Cronje was - he may well not have a career to return to, given he's not that great a player anyway and will be considered severely damaged goods - but that's not the issue, it doesn't send out a strong enough message. Asif should probably have been effectively banned for life as well, he's been in enough trouble before, Amir is perhaps the only one they've just about got it right on.

.

I think five years is about right.

I'd save life bans for fixing that significantly influences a match.

Got to leave some room to ramp up.



Can they still play IPL?

OP!! Welcome back, dude.

Thanks.

OP Tipping wrote:I think five years is about right.

I'd save life bans for fixing that significantly influences a match.

Got to leave some room to ramp up.

That's a pretty fudge-y position: "Match fixing is bad, m'kay, but not as bad as 'match fixing'. M'kay?"

It's like you can't be a little bit pregnant. You either are or you aren't.

Did you try and fix an element of the match or didn't you? Did you bring the entire integrity of the game into disrepute or not?

I can't see how there can be a middle ground - degrees of disgraceful, unforgivable mother-f*ckery.