ICC tribunal will consider Pakistan spot-fixing case in January

The International Cricket Council has appointed a three-man tribunal to consider the case of the three Pakistan players who were accused of spot-fixing in this summer's Lord's Test against England. The tribunal will sit in Doha, Qatar between 6 and 11 January 2011. An ICC statement said: "The ICC can confirm that, during a telephone hearing earlier today, the chair of the ICC's code of conduct Commission, Mr Michael Beloff QC, formally appointed an independent anti-corruption tribunal to determine the alleged breaches of the ICC's anti-corruption code by three Pakistan players – Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif. "The three-person tribunal will be made up of Mr Beloff QC (as chair), together with two other code of conduct commissioners – Justice Albie Sachs from South Africa and Sharad Rao from Kenya – as per the appointment procedure described in the ICC's anti-corruption code." "The three players were charged under article 2 of the ICC anti-corruption code on 2 September 2010 and have been provisionally suspended since that date. Two players – Salman Butt and Mohammad Amir – had an appeal against that provisional suspension dismissed on 31 October 2010. All three players remain suspended from all cricketing activities." All three players deny the charges. Earlier today, a Pakistani newspaper reported that Butt, Amir and Asif, as well as Danish Kaneria and Kamran Akmal, would not be selected to play for Pakistan on the forthcoming tour of New Zealand or in next year's World Cup in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.