Pakistan cricketers Butt and Amir to fight bans

Lawyers for Pakistan cricketers Salman Butt and Mohammad Amir have filed appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against bans for spot-fixing.

Butt was banned for 10 years - five of them suspended - after being found guilty of corruption by an International Cricket Council tribunal.

Mohammad Asif was handed a seven-year ban with two suspended, while Amir was banned for five.

All three have denied any wrongdoing in a Test match against England.

The players were accused of spot-fixing in the fourth Test at Lord's in August 2010.

They were banned after the News of the World newspaper reported no balls were bowled at specific points in England's innings after a payment was made to a businessman.

Information on when no balls would occur in an innings could be exploited by gamblers betting on specialist markets offered by some bookmakers.

Former captain Butt said in a statement: "This is to confirm that today my legal team served a statement of appeal."

Amir's lawyer Shahid Karim said he filed his client's appeal on Friday.

"The process is now to set to motion, we have challenged the judgment of the tribunal on various grounds," said Karim.

It is not yet known whether Asif also intends to appeal.

In a separate development, the players are due to appear at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court on 17 March to face charges of conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments and conspiracy to cheat.