The Court of Appeal dismissed their appeals at a hearing in London. On November 3, former Test captain Butt, 27, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison and promising fast bowler Aamer, 19, was ordered to serve six months in a young offenders' institution.

The pair were not present at the Court of Appeal in London for the hearing before Lord Chief Justice Igor Judge, the head of the English judiciary, and two other judges.

The judges rejected a claim by Butt's lawyer Ali Bajwa who argued that the former skipper's sentence was "manifestly excessive", while Henry Blaxland, representing Aamer, had urged the court to suspend his sentence.

Bajwa argued that Butt's sentence was "out of proportion to the seriousness of the offence that was committed".

Although serious, it was at the "lower end of the scale" of such offences. Bajwa described Butt as a broken man in a state of "ruin and disgrace".