PCB suspends banned trio contracts

Former captain Salman Butt must now wait until a hearing by the anti-corruption tribunal to judge the fixing case [GALLO/GETTY]

Salman Butt, Mohammed Amir and Mohammed Asif have had their central contracts suspended by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) while they are being investigated for alleged spot-fixing during the recent tour to England.

A senior official of the PCB said on Wednesday that the central contracts of the three players stood suspended from November 1, in line with the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) anti-corruption code.

Butt and Amir’s appeals against indefinite suspensions were rejected by the ICC last week. Asif had withdrawn his appeal. Their next stage is a hearing by the anti-corruption tribunal into the fixing case.

“Their contracts were active until the appeal hearing but once their initial appeals were rejected under the ICC code we can’t keep them on contracts,” the PCB’s Zakir Khan said.

Eligibility

PCB legal advisor Tafazzul Rizvi said the contracts were suspended because the players were not eligible to play for Pakistan.

“We only give contracts to players who can play for Pakistan. Until their cases are decided… they can’t get any benefits from the board in terms of contracts,” he said.

The ICC suspended the three on September 2 after a British tabloid accused them of accepting money for bowling predetermined no-balls in a Test against England at Lord’s in late August.

Asif and Butt were in category A of the central contracts and were receiving a monthly salary of $2,950 from PCB. Amir was in category B on a monthly salary of $2,100.

The central contracts were awarded in March and were in effect from January 1- December 31, 2010.