LONDON: A shadowy Indian contact offered the agent of several Pakistan cricketers $1 million to ensure they threw a Test match against England, a London court heard Tuesday.
The jury in the trial of former Pakistan captain Salman Butt and fast bowler Mohammad Asif saw video footage of meetings between the players' agent Mazhar Majeed and undercover News of the World reporter Mazher Mahmood.
The former investigations editor for Rupert Murdoch's now-defunct tabloid was posing as an Indian frontman for a Far East gambling syndicate.
In an August 21 meeting in Majeed's house in south London, the reporter recorded the agent on the telephone with the unidentified man in India, discussing deliberately throwing the Test match between England and Pakistan at The Oval, which was under way at the time, Southwark Crown Court was told.
Referring to the number of Pakistan players under his wing, Majeed was heard saying it was "not a problem" to fix the match result, as "you know how many I've got, you know that they do it."
Majeed called his Indian contact and told him: "You know what we spoke about last night, what offer can you give me for today's game? Tell me, just give me a figure now, we haven't got long.
"There's a possibility, I'm just telling you that now, they're talking at least 1.2, at least. In dollars."
The prosecution alleged that Majeed and the mysterious contact were floating the possibility of Pakistan deliberately losing the game.
Majeed said: "Boss, you know how many I've got, you know that they do it. So of course that's not a problem. But you just give me the figure and I'm going to get back to you. We haven't got much time. One million, yeah?"
The Indian contact replied: "I give you one (million dollars). One I give you, but has to be a definite game score."
After the call, Majeed told the reporter: "There's big, big money in results, I tell you, you can see that."
In the event, Pakistan beat England by four wickets to secure a memorable Test victory.
The court heard that Majeed previously told the journalist that Pakistan were trying to win the match at The Oval because the players wanted Butt to remain as Test captain.
Prosecutors allege Butt and Asif agreed for no-balls to be bowled as part of a spot-fixing scam.
The two players have pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to obtain and accept corrupt payments, and conspiracy to cheat at gambling.
Majeed and young Pakistan bowler Mohammad Amir have also been charged with the same offences but are not standing trial alongside Butt and Asif.
Mahmood gave evidence from behind a screen after the judge banned descriptions of his appearance because his security could be compromised. He could be seen by the judge and the jury.
(Read: Spot-fixing trial: Wasim, Waqar, Ijaz, Moin all did it says Majeed)
___________________________________________
[poll id="527"]
COMMENTS (21)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
@ Mirza: in 1994, shane warne and mark waugh were caught involved with match fixers,a secret inquiry took place, they were fined 10K each, nothing was ever made public. The the late David Hooks made it public years later. they deserved life bans and jail time too coz they were involved in inside trading (by giving team info before the match).
Recently several Indian players have been linked to bookies and even a known bookie, who was thrown out of the IPL was spotted in the Indian dressing room during a world Cup match, yet no action was taken. Just about everyone is involved, but the level of involvement and the level of involvement by the home board and ICC is perhaps different. they probably tried not to pay ICC and got in trouble.
@Fawad: It does not matter who offered, Pakistani players took the bait, This speaks volumes of their chracter and love for their country. Don't blame Indians for that. If tomorrow Indians offer people like them large sums of monies, they would sell Pakistan too lock,stock and barrel.
To compromise one's nation's honor in exchange for money is not only shameful but proves one's betrayal and disloyalty and such people should never be allowed to represent as a national figure.
@Ali: Whenever in trouble never forget to use the "India Card"
@villageIdioot: We can use all the excuses we can find, but the truth wouldn't change. They got an offer to fix something in a match in return for a huge sum of money and they took it. This could have been an effort to frame them or whatever, but the problem is, they fell for it so now its time to pay.
As much as you India obsessed people want to try and act like it justifies your past absurd theories, I'm sorry to announce this is not an India vs Pakistan situation. Games being fixed are a world wide occurrence and their country of origin is not even a factor. It's simply about gambling and rigging it to get maximum payout. Who they have their money on is where their loyalties reside.
It is a known fact that Indians have been behind many shady situations facing Pakistan. But then one claps with two hands. The guilty should be punished severely so such things never happen again.
Majeed is a braggart who claims he knew Musharraf, Brad Pitt and Rger Federer socially. His goal in his discussion with Mahmood was to bid up the rate - so why wouldn't he claim that someone else was offering him a million dolars? Majeed also claims that Waqar, Wasim and Younis were also involved. Do you think the court is going to buy that? No. The only part that will be accepted by the court is where other actions support the conversation: 1) Cash is accepted 2) Actual no bal was bowled etc.
If it makes you feel comfortable that there was some Indian who was also involved - fine. But no court operates like that and most reasonable people do not operate like that.
Incidentally few years back - a cople of Indians were involved in match fixing. They were banned for life from playing by BCCI itself. In case of these people, the PCB first counterattacked and claimed that England had also fixed a match. When Englad sued Ijaz Butt he withdrew. Even now only the ICC has penalized these players. No penalty from PCB.
We know that clap goes with two hands. India is 100% involved in this case without any doubt. Don't just blame our cricketers as Indian involvement is more in gambling. India is the root of all this trouble. They should take legal actions against it.
there you go...we knew that Indians were behind all this.
SO Majeed was just claiming that there was some Indian who was wiling to pay a million to bid up his rate with the News of the World reporter. Clearly if there had been such a payment and Majeed had delivered, Pakistan would have lost the match instead of winning it.
I have serious suspicion about this test, a match Australia virtually came back from a difficult position to win the match. And Shoaib Akhtar was deliberately under-bowled by caption Wasim Akram and enable to Gilchrist to score a fast century and win the test.
I wish the authrorities would investigate this test too
http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63855.html
There may be many more shady characters involved from other countries. However, the fact remains that only a handful of them are caught red-handed and all of them are Pakistanis. Lut us wait and see if and when more names come out and be punished as well. The sad truth is Pakistani players made money for losing matches and the results show that. Not even the lowest of the lows would sell the glory of their country like that. The Sydney test is a recent vivid example of that. We have lowered ourselves to the extent that we are happy is a cricketer's name is not involved and call him hero for not taking bribes or selling out! Isn't that what every cricketer supposed to do?
And Shahid Afridi proves to be the king through the Mazhar Majeed saga. He is my man!
@rkfrom USA: Read the article again, it's what was said in the court. Who is being dumb and a conspiracy theorist now? You think that an Indian would not be involved in this? Indians are the root cause of cricket having gone dirty and commercialised (read: IPL scandals and Indian cricket mafia)
Cricket really is 'the religion' after all ...
Shame on the match fixing players which ever nationality they may be! The people of their respective country pray at every ball & these players let them down. Win, & the whole nation rejoices & lose, nation stays heart broken & these players do this. :(