Published: Jun 12, 2013, 11:03 AM (IST)
Edited: Jun 12, 2013, 11:03 AM (IST)
Mohammad Asif was banned by the ICC for seven years © Getty Images
London: Jun 12, 2013
Mohammad Asif, the former Pakistan pacer who was banned by the International Cricket Council (ICC) over spot-fixing scandal for seven years, will have his appeal against conviction heard in a court in the United Kingdom (UK), his lawyer Ravi Sukul informed.
According to a report in the Deccan Chronicle, if the appeal is in favour of the tainted cricketer, he will be free to enter UK and the ICC will also be forced to reconsider the ban.
Sukul said, “If Asif wins his appeal he will have no criminal convictions and would be free to enter the UK as he did before. The ICC will have to seriously consider releasing him from the ban.”
“If ICC does not release him, I shall have to appeal to the Court of Arbitration in Sports (CAS),” Sukul added.
The Pakistani cricketer is not expected at the hearing.
“Asif is not required because the appeal hearing is for legal arguments for lawyers only. The ICC is not required because this is an appeal against UK criminal convictions not ICC ban,” the lawyer added.
Touted as one of the best new-ball bowlers, Asif’s career suffered a fatal blow in April this year, after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected his appeal against a seven-year spot-fixing ban.
Along with teenage pace partner Mohammad Aamer and captain Salman Butt, he was implicated in a News of the World sting, which claimed that several Pakistani players took money to perform specific orders pre-arranged with bookmakers during the Lord’s Test against England in August 2010.
In 2011 the three players were all banned by the International Cricket Council Tribunal, with Asif and Butt turning to CAS in a last-ditch attempt to get their bans voided.
