London, Nov 2(ANI): Former England captain Ian Botham has hailed the Southwark Crown Court's spot-fixing trial verdict that has left Pakistan trio Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir facing prison sentences.
"The only way you will stop match-fixing is to make examples of people. The no-ball that Mohammad Amir bowled was ridiculous. It was about three feet over the line," the Sun quoted Botham, as saying.
"One or two members of the commentary team scratched their heads when they saw it. Players must know that, if they get caught with their fingers in the pot, they will get severely burned," he added.
The spot-fixing controversy centres on allegations that Butt, Asif and Amir took bribes from a bookmaker, Mazhar Majeed, to deliberately under-perform at certain times in the 2010 Lord's Test against England.
Undercover reporters from News of the World, led by Mazher Mahmood, had secretly video-taped Majeed accepting money and informing the reporters that Asif and Amir would deliberately bowl no-balls at specific points in an over.
This information could have been used by gamblers to place bets.
In response to these allegations, Scotland Yard arrested Majeed on the charge of match-fixing.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) banned Butt, Asif and Amir for terms of between five and ten years.
Butt and Asif have also been found guilty by the London court on criminal charges relating to spot-fixing.
Amir and Mahjeed had entered guilty pleas on the same charges. (ANI)
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