6 Feb 2014

Banned match fixers want to play

12:54 pm on 6 February 2014

Pakistan's talented but tainted trio of Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer have vowed to return to international cricket, three years to the day after they were banned for spot-fixing.

On February 5, 2011 an anti-corruption tribunal of the International Cricket Council (ICC) banned the three players for a minimum of five years for arranging no balls to order during the Lord's Test against England in August 2010.

Butt, 29, the captain of the Pakistan Test team at the time, finally admitted his guilt in June last year and said he wanted to move on from the disgrace.

Butt was banned for 10 years, with five suspended, Asif for seven with two suspended and Aamer for five years, meaning all of them could return to the game in August 2015.

West Indian Marlon Samuels is the only player ever to return to international cricket after serving a two-year ban on fixing.

Butt says he wants the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to help him get permission to play first-class cricket.

Asif has found a sideline on the silver screen and is about to star in a joint Indian-Pakistani film, but says he wants to return to the game.

Meanwhile 21-year-old Aamer -- who was just 19 at the time of the scandal and received a great deal of sympathy -- said he was looking forward to returning.

Before the ban, the young left-armer was seen as one of the brightest fast-bowling talents in international cricket.