Asif raises doubts over Butt to save his skin

LONDON (Agencies) - Pakistan fast bowler M Asif highlighted the involvement of his former skipper Salman Butt while in the witness stand during day 13 of the alleged spot-fixing trial by telling a London court "the captain knows". Asif, 28, was under cross-examination from chief prosecutor Aftab Jafferjee QC when he raised the role of Butt. It was in reference to the questionable no-ball that Asif bowled in the Lord's Test last year, which was delivered on the sixth ball of the tenth over that had been previously predicted by agent Mazhar Majeed when secretly recorded by an undercover journalist. The inference from Asif, wearing a grey-coloured suit with a shirt and tie, was that how could a fix be made, involving the tenth over, if the captain was not party to it. Asif denied any knowledge of the alleged fix, inferring the captain had to be involved to keep him bowling. Asif said: "The captain knows. What I have told you the last two daysthe captain knows. He is the one who brings them (bowlers) on. So what is he (Majeed) saying?" Jafferjee took stock of what Asif had said, removed his glasses, paused, and returned to Asif by saying that he felt they had both reached the same conclusion which was that Butt was central to the fix. "You're telling me it's down to Butt aren't you?" Asif, though, stopped short of actually agreeing by saying, "You can see the CD what he (Majeed) is saying." Asif was much more argumentative and passionate in his exchanges with Jafferjee than on his first day in the witness stand. At one stage, when discussing the telephone traffic evidence in a printed transcript that has colour-coded all involved parties, Asif asked Jafferjee: "Who's the yellow number?" To which Jafferjee replied, "I wish we knew Mr Asif." Asif came back: "You're trying to ruin my life and you can't tell me who yellow is?" "If anyone is trying to destroy your life Mr Asif it's you," Jaffejee said. The prosecutor also asked Asif that if he was not involved in the fix, why did Majeed call him 59 seconds after leaving the Copthorne Tara Hotel at 23.18, with a briefcase with 140,000 in cash on the night before the Lord's Test. "Was he calling you about a sponsorship deal or to arrange dinner Mr Asif?" Jafferjee said. "You think he's calling me to do the fix?" Asif replied. "He's already done the fix," Jafferjee said. "Now he wants you to know about it." Jafferjee added: "Why is this man, who you say is not your agent, who you have only met three times in person since May 2010, why is he calling you now?" Asif responded by saying that if they were talking about fixing why was the call only 16 seconds long. "If we were talking about something as big as this do you think we would only need 16 seconds," Asif said. Shortly after that, Butt rang Asif, a call spanning 14 seconds. Asif repeatedly denied being part of the fix and suggested that Majeed had two phones, one of them secret and that he never called him on that secret phone like he did other people who are implicated. Asif also questioned why the undercover journalist never managed to have Asif on record like he did Butt and Amir "with all his equipment and money". No News of the World marked money was found on Asif but Jafferjee said that was only through luck. "You did not receive News of the World cash because you were out at a restaurant. That's why only two received the cash and you didn't," he said. "Well why could Majeed not have left it with Amir or the Butt," came Asif's response. On Monday morning, Jafferjee will give a closing speech for the prosecution, before the lawyers for the defendants present theirs to the jury, prior to Justice Cooke's summing up.

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