THE fate of Pakistan cricketers Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir will not be known until early next month after an anti-corruption tribunal yesterday chose to delay their verdicts.

The three players had spent the past six days at a hearing in Doha, Qatar, answering charges relating to allegations of spot-fixing during last summer’s Lord’s Test against England.

Claims of no-balls being delivered to order surfaced during the match in London, and the International Cricket Council swiftly imposed provisional suspensions on the trio.

Closing statements were given yesterday and a verdict was expected to follow, but the three-man tribunal, chaired by Michael Beloff QC, decided to defer a decision until February 5.

“The tribunal has throughout been very conscious of the importance of these proceedings to the three players and to the wider world of cricket,” Beloff said in the statement.

“Representations have been made to it to reserve any decision on the charges still before it until it has had sufficient time to give the issues the most careful consideration and until it is able to, at the same time as handing down its decision, provide written reasons. This would not be feasible in the timetable agreed for this hearing in Doha.”

The statement by Beloff also brought to light for the first time that the three Pakistan players had also been under investigation for corruption charges arising from last year’s Oval Test against England.

Although the specifics of those charges were not revealed, Beloff did confirm that Amir and Asif had been acquitted, but that a charge against Butt remained.