Asif loses appeal against conviction

Mohammad Asif, the banned Pakistan fast bowler, has lost an appeal against his conviction in the spot-fixing case that marred Pakistan's tour of England in 2010.

In their ruling, three Court of Appeal judges in London said they were "not persuaded that there are any grounds, arguable or otherwise, for attacking the safety of the convictions of this applicant [Asif]. The renewed applications are accordingly dismissed."

According to Ravi Sukul, Asif's legal counsel in London, the main reason for approaching the Court of Appeal was that a successful appeal could have influenced the ICC to reconsider the ban imposed on Asif in 2011.

"The appeal was against the two convictions he had in 2011," Sukul said. "The two convictions to me did not accord with the legal principles of that particular case. When I read the case papers I came to the conclusion that the judge who was trying the case may have made some legal technical errors and because of that I took the case to the Court of Appeal. But the three judges who were listening to the arguments this morning did not agree with me."

Asif, along with his team-mates Salman Butt and Mohammad Amir, had been found guilty of conspiring to bowl deliberate no-balls during the Lord's Test. Butt was given a 30-month sentence, while Asif got 12 months and Amir six. Asif was released from jail in May 2012, after serving half his sentence.

Even before their convictions by the Southwark Crown Court, the ICC had already banned the players from any sort of recognised cricket. Asif's ban was for five years.

Asif and Butt challenged their ICC bans at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland, but their appeals were rejected in April.