Cheating cricketers facing prison

THREE of the world’s top cricketers were facing possible jail terms last night after being convicted of match-fixing.

Pakistan’s former Test captain Salman Butt, 27, and fast bowlers Mohammad Asif, 28, and Mohammad Amir, 19, plotted to bowl deliberate no-balls in the Lord’s Test against England last summer as part of a lucrative betting scam.

The trio were caught after an undercover reporter recorded UK-based sports agent Mazhar Majeed, 36, boasting of how he could arrange for Pakistan cricketers to rig games for money. Butt missed the birth of his second child as he and former world number two Test bowler Asif were found guilty by a jury at London’s Southwark Crown Court of conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to accept corrupt payments.