Pakistan diplomat wants life bans if players guilty

Three Pakistan cricketers facing spot-fixing accusations should be banned for life and prosecuted if the charges against them are proven, the country's top diplomat in London said on Sunday.

Pakistan Test captain Salman Butt and bowlers Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif have been suspended by the International Cricket Council (ICC) following last week's allegations in the News of the World newspaper.

Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan's high commissioner (ambassador) to Britain, has been one of the trio's most vocal supporters.

On Friday, he accused the ICC of trying to "play to the public gallery" with the suspension, adding they had "no business" to impose it.

But in a new interview with BBC radio on Sunday, he said the three players would face a "most draconian penalty" if they were found guilty of spot-fixing, while insisting they were innocent until proven otherwise.

"It's the responsibility of the ICC to take any appropriate action and only they have the authority to ban them for life," Hasan said.

"But if the evidence that the News of the World is supposed to have is proven correct and is admissible in a court of law, I would banish them from cricket.

"If they are found guilty, they must be punished properly, not only banned for life but I would see that they are prosecuted properly in a court of law."

He called for "sentences so that we would not see these sort of characters in sport because they are spoiling the whole history of the game."

Hasan added: "If they are found guilty of anything, they will be given a most draconian penalty because they have been responsible for bringing a bad name to cricket, their country and the team."

The News of the World, which has since claimed a fourth, unnamed player is also being investigated, alleged the trio had been involved in the deliberate bowling of no-balls, normally a random event, during last week's fourth Test against England at Lord's.