Lessons from the spot-fixing scandal

The guilty verdict returned by the jury on former Pakistan captain Salman Butt, fast bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, on charges of cheating and accepting corrupt payments, should at least ensure that the paying public has confidence in the integrity of future cricket matches.

The Pakistani trio have brought embarrassment to their country by their naivety and to the honest cricketers who toil hard to earn a living, in the absence of proper infrastructure and exposure.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) should be committed to the well-being of sincere players. The game's governing body needs to wake up, dust off all the controversies it has been mired in, and ensure that the focus lies on the development of future cricketers. To this extent the guilty threesome are the product of a malfunctioning cricketing machinery and should be viewed as an example not to be emulated.

Pakistan has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to unearthing raw cricketing talent, but professional sport has a different set of expectations which everyone must adhere to. Ability alone is not enough.

In their fall from grace, the guilty have undone so much that their illustrious predecessors have achieved in the past. They have a lot of introspection to do when the sentencing is pronounced.