Pakistan cricket captain condemned for 'extraordinary' WWF wrestling claim

The captain of the Pakistan cricket team was condemned in court today for making an "extraordinary" claim that American wrestling proves fans still watch sport even when it has been fixed.

Salman Butt, 27, made the comment at the cricket corruption trial when asked whether he agreed that match rigging could "destroy" the game.

The player replied "it depends" - and added that in WWF Wrestling all the fights are pre-arranged but thousands of fans still follow it.

Aftab Jafferjee, QC, making the prosecution's closing speech, said the claim "spoke to the character of the man" accused of fixing in the Lord's Test against England last year.

He called upon the jury to forget the technicalities of the game of cricket, and treat it as a case of "crude deceit and greed".

"This is about the corrupt exploitation of a system by those lucky enough, through talent, to operate in that system," Mr Jafferjee said.

"And all for what? Money, and more money."
The prosecutor said that the agent at the centre of the fixing racket, Mazhar Majeed, 36, from Croydon, "stinks" of corruption.

He added that the cricketers have effectively turned on each other "as they try to wriggle out of what each of them has done".

Butt, the captain, and Mohammad Asif, a 29-year-old bowler, deny conspiracy to cheat and accept corrupt payments. The case continues.