Pakistan cricketers and agent JAILED

Pakistan cricketers Salman Butt, Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif and agent Mazhar Majeed were all jailed on Thursday for their parts in fixing parts of a Test match against England.

Salman Butt

Mohammad Asif

Mohammad Aamer

Mazhar Majeed

Cricket agent Majeed, 36, from Croydon in south London, received the harshest penalty with a sentence of two years and eight months, Judge Jeremy Cooke ruled at London’s Southwark Crown Court.

Pakistan former Test captain Salman Butt, 27, received 30 months, fastbowler Mohammad Asif, 28, received one year in jail and 19-year-old Mohammad Aamer was jailed for six months.

“These offences, regardless of pleas, are so serious that only a sentence of imprisonment will suffice,” Cooke told the four in court.

He added: “Each of you will serve half the time imposed in custody and then be released on licence.”

Butt and Asif were found guilty on Tuesday of deliberately bowling three no-balls during the Lord’s Test in August 2010 as part of a “spot-fixing” betting scam uncovered by Rupert Murdoch’s now-defunct News of the World.

Aamer and Majeed had already pleaded guilty to involvement in the scam. AFP