Butt, Asif found guilty on both charges

Salman Butt: guilty © Getty Images Enlarge

The jury in the spot-fixing trial has found Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif guilty, by a unanimous verdict, on the charge of 'conspiracy to cheat' and guilty by a 10-2 majority decision on the charge of 'conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments'.

The sentences will be pronounced by the judge, Justice Cooke, on Wednesday and Thursday; both players will remain on bail until then. The convictions - reached by the jury of the Southwark Crown Court in London after 16 hours and 56 minutes of debate - carry jail terms, with a maximum prison sentence for the acceptance of corrupt payments is seven years in jail, while 'conspiracy to cheat' carries a maximum two-year sentence.

On a historic day for cricket, the world also learnt that Mohammad Amir, the teenage Pakistani fast bowler, had pleaded guilty to the same two charges before the trial began; he will now be given a "Newton Hearing" to decide the quantum of punishment. It also emerged that the ACSU was set to investigate more matches on Pakistan's tour of England in 2010, when the incidents central to this case took place.

The verdicts were handed in almost four weeks after the trial started, on October 4. Butt, wearing a velvet jacket and shirt without a tie, showed no emotion as the verdicts were read out and stared at the jury stony-faced. An hour earlier, in a bitter twist of fate, his wife Gul Hassan was understood to have given birth to a second son back in Pakistan. Asif, wearing a grey winter coat in the dock, was equally unmoved and neither player said a word or made any obvious facial expression.

The jury were unable to reach a verdict on the "accepting corrupt payments" charge against Asif, and Justice Cooke immediately retired them to deliberate some more in case they could reach a verdict on that fourth charge, which they did after more than three more hours.

The unambiguous nature of the verdict was welcomed by the Crown Prosecution Service, which had pursued the case in court. "All I want to say that this is cheating pure and simple," Matt Horne of the CPS said. "They let down everyone that bought a ticket and they let down children when they were role models to those very children who are playing such a special game. I think we all look forward to this game being played in its truest spirit as we go forward from these types of issues. I also acknowledge the role that investigative journalism has played in this case."

Butt and Asif, along with Amir, were exposed by the now defunct British tabloid the News of the World in an undercover sting operation. Their former agent Mazhar Majeed was recorded by a secret camera predicting when no-balls would be delivered by the bowlers. The players have already been punished by the ICC after a disciplinary hearing in Doha, Qatar, earlier this year. Each was banned from the sport for at least five years. Butt received a further suspended five-year ban and Asif was handed a further two-year suspended sanction.

All three players have filed appeals against their bans at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland.