Pakistani Cricketers Lose Match-Fixing Appeal

Salman Butt And Mohammad Amir Lose Cricket Match-Fixing Appeal

Two disgraced Pakistan cricketers given custodial terms for their parts in a match-fixing scam that rocked world sport have lost challenges against their sentences.

The decision was announced by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, sitting with two other judges.

Salman Butt and Mohammad Amir were not present at the Court of Appeal in London for the decision.

Ex-Test captain Butt, 27, was jailed for 30 months on November 3 for his role as the "orchestrator" of a plot to bowl deliberate no-balls in the Lord's Test against England last summer.

Amir, 19, who had been tipped to become one of the all-time great fast bowlers, was detained for six months in a young offenders institution after he admitted bowling two intentional no-balls at Lord's.

The judges rejected a plea that Butt's sentence was "manifestly excessive" and argument that Amir should have received a suspended sentence.