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Reverse swing: Delusions of grandeur**
Saad Shafqat
http://www.dawn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Samlan-butt-543.jpg
**It was during the sentencing phase of the trial that Salman Butt’s cool and cocky exterior finally crumbled. **
Prior to that, he had cut a confident and sometimes even aloof figure. He seemed to be in control, with all angles covered and all eventualities planned for. There were frequent moments when you could detect a smirk on his face.
After the verdict all of that vanished. His brow creased up, his eyes became downcast, and the colour drained from his face.
The smirk completely disappeared. He looked nervous and afraid, but above all he looked angry. The one emotion we did not see on this man’s face was remorse.
To get some sense of Butt’s mind—a mind that has now been established in a court of law as being dark and devious—you have to start from the beginning of the crisis. When the spot-fixing transgressions exposed by the British tabloid News of the World first occurred, Butt and his accomplices Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir had no fear of the law. The only deterrent in front of them was the ICC’s code of conduct, which declared zero tolerance for corruption in the game and threatened lifetime bans for those found guilty.
The possibility of ever going to jail could not have even remotely crossed these players’ minds. Indeed, for a while after the initial media exposure in late August last year, the only entity being talked about as having jurisdiction over these developments was the ICC, cricket’s world governing body. The players violated the international code of conduct for their sport, but there was no suggestion they had committed any crime. After all, it was just a game, and as far as most people—especially the fans in Pakistan—thought, that should have been that.
Except that it wasn’t. They say the devil is in the details, and you should always read the fine print. In committing their spot-fixing moves, Butt, Asif and Amir had unknowingly also violated the statutes of a UK law known as the Gambling Act of 2005. This was quickly grasped by the local police authorities, the so-called Scotland Yard. Gambling on sports is legal in England, but defrauding the gambling set-up is a crime. By rigging specific outcomes (bowling no-balls at predetermined moments), Pakistan’s disgraced trio fooled bookies into thinking an event had happened by chance, when in fact it had been purposeful and pre-planned.
For this crime, they eventually found themselves facing a judge in the Southwark Crown Court in London, which is part of the senior courts in England and Wales. It has been one of the confusing aspects of this case that the ICC and Scotland Yard have both been investigating it. It is important to understand that the ICC dealt only with whether the players’ code of conduct had been violated, while Scotland Yard and the UK court system dealt with the question of whether a crime had been committed.
Clearly, Butt, Asif, and Amir, along with their friends, families and their initial legal help, were utterly unprepared for the criminal dimensions. The prosecution from Scotland Yard came out of the blue and blindsided them. Even so, in the early stages of the criminal investigation no one thought it would come to this. It was just a cricket match, and that too in a foreign country. Why would there be a prison sentence for that?
Yet when the summons came from the court, there was little choice. Many people have been wondering, why did the players comply with the demands of another’s country legal system? They could easily have decided not to go through with the UK crown court’s request. They could have stayed back in Pakistan; why did they return to England? The answer is that they were cornered. Had they refused to appear in court, they would only have confirmed their guilt. With so much media spotlight and with their status as widely-recognised celebrities, they could not have gone into hiding. International arrest warrants would have been issued. Interpol would have been on their tail.
Their only hope of escape—and a very slim hope, too, considering the weight of the evidence against them—was to convince the court of their innocence. Amir’s legal team turned out to have an edge in this regard. They managed to persuade their client to come clean, and negotiated with the judge to secure a lighter punishment in return. In their stubbornness, Butt and Asif persisted with their claims of innocence. A jury of six men and six women did not think much of these claims, and found them guilty of defrauding bookmakers and accepting bribes.
Much has been said about this scandal, and one of the oft-repeated themes is that they boys fell victim to greed. No doubt there was greed involved, but even more than that it was their arrogance that they would get away with it. Greed knows no limit, afflicting poor and wealthy alike. Ultimately, Butt, Asif and Amir showed a dismissive disregard for the law. It was this arrogant self-delusion for which they have paid heavily.
http://www.dawn.com/2011/11/13/reverse-swing-delusions-of-grandeur.html