London, Oct 14(ANI): The seventh day of the spot-fixing case hearing in a London court saw Zakir Khan, former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) director of cricket operations, give exhaustive information on lawful payments made to the players and the breakdown of how their earnings were distributed.
In February, British prosecutors had "authorised charges of conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments, and also conspiracy to cheat" against tainted Pakistani trio- Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif- as well as alleged bookmaker Mazhar Majeed.
The prosecution at Southwark Crown Court asked Khan to detail all of the various payments made to the PCB's contracted players.
Khan, appearing through video link from Lahore, explained the breakdown of pay to both the prosecuting lawyer Aftab Jafferjee and the two players' legal representatives, The Express Tribune reports.
It emerged that a fee of three million rupees (approximately 22,000 pounds) was made to players to deter them from signing up to the Indian Cricket League (ICL)- a piece of information revealed by Butt's legal representative Ali Bajwa and confirmed by Khan.
Pakistan lost several cricketers to the unsanctioned league, prompting the board to give loyalty payments to those players who did not sign up for the ICL, of which Butt was one.
Bajwa's line of questioning also revealed that the then PCB chairman Nasim Ashraf offered to triple player bonus payments for a match against India in Bangladesh in 2008, when Butt scored a ton.
The information given by Khan regarding various payments made by the PCB to the players and the mode of these imbursements were of great importance, as large sums of cash were found in the hotel rooms of Butt and Asif during police raids last year in England.
During the police searches, an amount of 30,002 pounds was found in Butt's hotel room as well as various cash in other currencies, while Asif had a little over 8,000 pounds in his room.
With that background, the prosecution gleaned the legitimate breakdown of pay made to its players.
The court was told that Butt and Asif were both 'A' category players and were paid a monthly retainer of 250,000 rupees, amounting to 1800 pounds. For match fees, they received 350,000 rupees per Test (2500 pounds), 300,000 per One-Day International (2200 pounds) and 250,000 per Twenty20. All these payments are made by cheque in Pakistan.
Payments for man-of-the-match or series awards and series wins are calculated at the end of tours in the PCB office and again paid by cheque in Pakistan.
In terms of allowances, the jury was told that for the ten-week tour of England in 2010, the maximum Butt could have pocketed from the PCB was 10,500 pounds.
All players earned 8,000 pounds for the tour, but since Butt was Pakistan skipper at that time, he received an added captaincy bonus that was worth 250 pounds a week. (ANI)
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