Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif eligible for September return
Wednesday 19 August 2015 16:48, UK
Pakistan players Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif will be eligible to return to competitive cricket on September 2 after serving bans for corruption.
The International Cricket Council has confirmed the duo have fulfilled the conditions laid down by the Anti-Corruption Tribunal and their respective suspensions will expire at midnight on September 1.
They will be eligible for domestic and international cricket, while the third banned player - Mohammad Amir - will be eligible to play internationally after permission was granted for him to play in Pakistan domestic cricket earlier this year.
The three players were found guilty of various offences of corrupt behavior relating to the Lords Test between England and Pakistan in August 2010 by the independent Anti-Corruption Tribunal on February 5, 2011, with their sanctions backdated to commence on September 2, 2010.
Asif was originally banned for seven years, the final two years were suspended on specified conditions, while Butt was banned for 10 years, with five years of those similarly suspended.
A statement from the ICC read: "As with all players and other participants in cricket, all three players remain bound to comply with the ICC Anti-Corruption Code and the anti-corruption rules of all National Cricket Federations.
"Consequently, if they should commit any further act of corrupt conduct they are liable to (i) further separate disciplinary proceedings for breaches of the relevant Code or rules and (ii) in the case of Asif and Butt and where such breach occurs during the suspended part of their original period of ineligibility, the activation of that suspended period of ineligibility."
