'St Lucia was the overture to England'

The tribunal's assessment of the case against Salman Butt included extensive analysis of a series of conversations between Butt and Mazhar Majeed, the player agent at the centre of the scandal, in May 2010, during the World Twenty20 in the West Indies. This, the tribunal said, "appears to have been the overture to the main performance in summer in England."

The judgment reveals that Butt had been in receipt of what the three-man tribunal, headed by Michael Beloff QC, described as "suspicious" calls and texts from Majeed during that period. The judgment says: "On their face the messages appear to reflect a pre-existing discussion about spot fixing ... The episode in spring in St Lucia appears to have been the overture to the main performance in England in the summer."

The St Lucia incident has been reported before in various guises: ESPNcricinfo did a story soon after the Lord's scandal erupted on two players who had been sent information-seeking notices from the ACSU for incidents in St Lucia. Ijaz Butt, chairman PCB, revealed a few days later at a press conference on September 9 that Butt and Kamran Akmal had been sent notices by the ACSU. There is no mention, however, in the full judgment of Akmal and in any case, Akmal has been given clearance by the ICC and PCB for selection. He is part of Pakistan's 15-man World Cup squad.

More recently, the SMSs referred to in the judgment were part of an extensive leak of evidential information by GEO, a leading TV channel in Pakistan. In November the channel leaked precisely the SMSs referred to in the judgment as well as others not mentioned.

The tribunal's judgement, however, now brings its significance to the fore. Majeed is said to have sent repeated text messages to Butt on May 10 referring to some pre-existing arrangement about spot-fixing. Butt was asked to confirm something after having spoken to an unnamed person, to which he replied in the affirmative.

There were five further messages sent to Butt's Dubai number. The first said, "Ok How about one thing. One in 7th over and one in 8th …." The next one said, "This will only work if u score in first 2 overs and no wickets. Also even if we bat second innings it is same." The third and fourth ask Butt to further confirm that "1 fall in each" of the seventh and eighth overs. The final message also asked him to confirm for the "second thing."

Butt maintained in his defence that there was no evidence that he had responded to these messages and that the fix as claimed in the messages had ever taken place. He also said that this was the first time Majeed had made such an approach to him. Butt informed the tribunal that the "tedious teases" by Majeed continued throughout the summer, and that he told Majeed that he did not appreciate such communications, when he met him shortly after the messages were sent. BBC reported a source close to Butt telling them that the communications were not evidence of any wrongdoing. "The only allegations that have been put to Mr Butt are in relation to the Tests in August and September. There is no other wrongdoing and the ICC has not charged him with anything in relation to this."

But the tribunal pointed out that Butt had failed to disclose the total number of mobile phones he used during the West Indies tour when he was originally asked by the ICC for information. Butt's sensitivity to reveal this would have been unnecessary had he simply been the target of a "tedious tease" by Majeed, the tribunal felt. Though no charges were brought against Butt on account of the St Lucia exchanges, it led the tribunal to believe that they were the pre-cursor to the actual spot-fixes during the Lord's Test.