NBP to not renew contracts for banned trio

National Bank of Pakistan, Pakistan's largest bank and the team that Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif used to represent in domestic cricket in the country, has decided not to renew the contracts of the three players. Butt was banned for 10 years with a five-year suspended sentence, Asif for seven years with a two-year suspended ban and Amir for five years by the ICC's three-man tribunal that found them guilty of spot-fixing during the Lord's Test last year.

"The contracts of the three players expired on December 31, 2010 and the bank has decided not to renew the contracts," National Bank's sports department head Iqbal Qasim told AFP.

The bans imposed by the ICC would not have allowed the three players to play domestic cricket anyway, as the punishment concerns official, sanctioned cricket, international or domestic. While each of the three will have to wait at least until 2015 to return to official cricket, Butt, reportedly, will begin a stint with a local TV channel as analyst during the upcoming World Cup.