A BRITISH court has handed down jail terms to three Pakistan cricketers and an agent for fixing parts of a Test match against England at Lord's last year, while Australian authorities are looking to make match-fixing a criminal offence punishable by jail terms of up to 10 years.
Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt received 30 months in jail - the longest term of the three players.
Fast bowler Mohammad Asif was sentenced to one year, while 19-year-old speedster Mohammad Amir will serve six months. Agent Mazhar Majeed was sentenced to two years and eight months. All four may be released for good behaviour after serving half their terms.
Butt and Asif were found guilty on Tuesday of deliberately bowling three no-balls during the Test in August 2010 as part of a spot-fixing betting scam uncovered by the now-defunct News of the World.
Amir and Majeed had already pleaded guilty to involvement in the scam. The sentences were handed down yesterday by a judge at Southwark Crown Court.
''These offences, regardless of pleas, are so serious that only a sentence of imprisonment will suffice,'' Judge Jeremy Cooke told the four in court.
The judge said future cricket matches would forever be tainted by the fixing scandal. ''Now, whenever people look back on a surprising event in a game or a surprising result, or whenever in the future there are surprising events or results, followers of the game … will be left to wonder whether there has been fixing, and whether what they have been watching is a genuine contest between bat and ball,'' he said.
''What ought to be honest sporting competition may not be such at all.''
The judge added that the Pakistan players had engaged in corruption in a game whose very name used to be associated with fair play. '''It's not cricket' was an adage. It is the insidious effect of your actions on professional cricket and the followers of it that make the offences so serious.
''The image and integrity of what was once a game but is now a business is damaged in the eyes of all, including the many youngsters who regarded you as heroes and would have given their eye teeth to play at the levels and with the skills that you had.''
Cricket Australia is pushing to ensure the nationwide laws are in place well before it hosts the 2015 World Cup.
Butt, Asif and Amir were found guilty under British law of conspiracy to cheat and accept corrupt payments, but no such charges exist in Australia, meaning International Cricket Council bans would have been the extent of their punishments if they had bowled the pre-arranged no-balls here.
Federal and state governments will take the next step towards introducing laws dealing specifically with match-fixing when attorneys-general meet to discuss draft legislation in Hobart later this month.
The move has long been supported by the Coalition of Major Professional Sports, chaired by Cricket Australia head James Sutherland, and CA reiterated the importance of protecting cricket, and especially its showpiece event, against corruption.
''We are very keen to have it in place as soon as possible, and before the ICC World Cup in 2015,'' a CA spokesman said.
The three Pakistani players made final pleas for leniency on Wednesday, while Majeed claimed Butt had instigated the conspiracy.
Amir expressed deep remorse in a statement read to the court by his lawyer. He said he had been so proud when he was handed his first Pakistan shirt that he wanted to sleep in it.
''I do know how much damage this has done to the game, a game which I love more than anything else in the world. I did decide many months ago that I wanted to admit that I deliberately threw two no-balls at the Lord's Test last summer.
''But I know this was very late and I want to apologise for not saying it before. I didn't find the courage to do it at the beginning.''
Butt's lawyer, Ali Bajwa, QC, asked the judge not to make his client suffer any more. ''He's lost the captaincy of the Pakistan cricket team and this was a job he had for five weeks, they won two Tests, and this was the greatest honour of his life,'' he said, adding that he has since been banned by the ICC for five years and is now ''close to unemployable''.
''He has gone from a national hero to a figure of contempt, and his ignominy is complete.
''He does not want to be the cause of his family's suffering. He now has only his liberty and his family left to lose.''

A media whiteboard showing the prison terms given to cricket agent Mazhar Majeed and former Pakistan cricketers Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir is seen outside Southwark Crown Court in London, Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011. Pakistan cricketers Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were all convicted of fixing parts of a cricket Test match against England in August 2010. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

ISLAMABAD - The three players sentenced to jail in Britain on Thursday for their part in a spot-fixing plot can expect little sympathy in their home country, according to the Pakistan Cricket Board.
Former captain Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were convicted in London of conspiring with agent Mazhar Majeed to bowl no-balls at pre-determined times in a betting scam during a test match against England last year.
"The conviction and sentencing of some Pakistani test players is a sad day for Pakistan cricket," PCB spokesman Nadeem Sarwa said. "Instead of having pride in playing for their country, these players chose to disappoint their supporters, damage the image of their country and bring the noble game of cricket into disrepute.
"There is little sympathy in Pakistan for the sorry pass they have come to."
Amir's mother wept after hearing the sentences at the family's home in a village near Islamabad. She watched television reports of her 19-year-old son's fate with other members of the family.
"Amir was innocent," she said. "He has not done the no-ball for the sake of money, he was forced to throw (a) no-ball."
Amir was sentenced to six months in prison. Butt will serve 2 1/2 years, while Asif received a term of 1 year. The lawyers for Butt and Amir have said they intend to appeal.
Former Pakistan great Imran Khan sympathized with Amir, who pleaded guilty to both charges of conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to accept corrupt payments. Butt and Asif denied the charges and were found guilty on Tuesday after a 22-day trial.
"I am hurt and dejected," Khan told Geo Television from Dubai. "They should have been punished after they committed a crime, but my heart goes for Amir, who is young and committed a mistake.
"Amir is young and I think when he saw others doing it (corruption), he thought 'I can also get away with it.'"
Khan, who led Pakistan to the World Cup title in 1992, is now a politician in his home country and campaigns against corruption.
"When these players see corruption in their own society, they think they could also escape if they do something wrong," he said. "But we should not hide ourselves behind such an excuse and every player should be held accountable if he has done something wrong."
Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif felt Amir should have been shown leniency for his guilty plea.
"When Amir had pleaded guilty the judge should not have punished him, I really feel sorry for him," Latif told The Associated Press.
At 18, Amir became the youngest player to take 50 test wickets and was considered one of the most promising fast bowlers in the world. The 28-year-old Asif had taken his 100th test wicket during last year's fateful tour to England.
Butt took over the test captaincy at 26 and was expected to spearhead Pakistan to much better fortunes. His sister Rubab Butt said Thursday her family stood by him.
"The decision is not correct and we condemn it," she said outside the family's home in Lahore.
Butt's wife gave birth to the couple's first son half an hour before the guilty verdict was delivered on Tuesday. But sympathy for the convicted threesome — and Butt and Asif in particular — was in short supply among the Pakistan public.
As he watched television images of Amir's mother crying, Mohammad Jahangir, a 32-year-old salesman in Rawalpindi, said: "When you have committed a crime, you should serve your punishment. What's the use of crying now?"
In Multan, about 80 people attended a rally against the disgraced Pakistan cricketers. The protesters — mostly students — chanted slogans against the three players and burnt posters of Asif and Butt.
Murtaza Badar, a 23-year-old student, defended Amir but said Butt and Asif "should not come to Pakistan again and stay away from our country.
"Pakistan's government should ban them."
Ejaz Minhas, a 40-year-old barber shop owner, said the situation was "shameful to say the least."
In its statement, the PCB outlined a four-point plan to eradicate corruption from the sport in its country. They include a recommendation to the government to consider passing a law making corruption in sports a criminal offence.
"The PCB will also work closely with the International Cricket Council and its member Boards in ensuring that the game of cricket globally is made totally free from the taint of corruption," said Sarwa, the PCB spokesman.
Former fast bowling great Waqar Younis was coach of the team when the betting scam was uncovered in a sting by the now-defunct English tabloid newspaper the News of the World.
"The only thing positive to come out of this, I hope, is that cricket will be in better hands and all this rubbish, with match and spot fixing will go out of the window and cricket will be a lot cleaner and clearer," Waqar said Thursday. "I wish I knew all this at the time when it was happening and things maybe could have ended in a different way. It's a sad story. It's a sad part of cricket."