Butt, Asif and Amir to appear before London court

Pakistan's tainted trio Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir have been asked to appear before the court in London on Tuesday or make themselves available via video conferencing. Yasin Patel, the barrister representing Butt, revealed on Saturday.


Mohammad Asif (left), Mohammad Amir (centre) and Salman Butt

"We are going to decide in next 24 hours whether to make Salman Butt available in person or make him appear through video conference," said Patel from London. "We have been asked to argue on legal issues in Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday. The three players face charges of taking bribes brought against them by Britain's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). There will be no cross examination at this stage," Patel added.

The trio, who appeared before a magistrate court in Westminster in March, were given bail. Patel said, the closure of the News of the World, who did the sting operation on the trio, will have no bearing at this juncture. "It is too early to say because we need to do a lot of research and investigate in this case," Patel said.

All the three players have challenged the ban imposed on them by the International Cricket Councilu00a0-- a minimum of five years for all three players ufffd and have appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), in Lausanne.

"We have not heard anything as yet from CAS and therefore have not suggested our arbitrator to represent our case," Butt's lawyer said.