Mazhar Majeed, a 35-year-old London-based businessman, has been accused of accepting £150,000 from an undercover journalist in return for telling Pakistan fast bowlers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif to deliberately bowl three no-balls last Thursday and Friday.
On Saturday night, a 35 year-old man was arrested by police on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud bookmakers.
Video footage of the meeting between the News of the World reporter, who was posing as part of an Asian gambling syndicate, and Majeed shows the man accepting the money and insisting that the three no-balls “have been organised” with the Pakistan team.
“This is exactly what’s going to happen, you’re going to see these three things happen,” Majeed said. “I’m telling you, if you play this right you’re going to make a lot of money, believe me.”
Amir and Asif did bowl three no-balls at the times specified by Majeed: Amir’s first ball of the third over and Asif’s sixth ball of the 10th over last Thursday, and the third ball of Amir’s third over on Friday. On each occasion, the bowlers overstepped the crease by a significant margin.
On Saturday Pakistan were teetering on the brink of defeat, still trailing England by 331 runs with six wickets remaining in their second innings
Majeed’s allegations about corrupt behaviour within the Pakistan squad also extended to other senior squad members. He claimed up to seven players could be 'bought’ for cash.
“I’ve been doing it [match-fixing] with them for about two-and-a-half years and we’ve made masses of money,” Majeed said.
“I manage 10 of the players, I do all their affairs like contracts, sponsorship, marketing, everything really. The players would never tell anybody else. They were the ones who actually approached me about this.
“This is the beauty of it. I was friends with them for four, five years and then they said this happens. I said: 'Really?’
“These poor boys need to [do this]. They’re paid peanuts.”
Majeed, a property tycoon who lives in Surrey and has a controlling stake in non-league football club Croydon FC, also claimed that Pakistan’s one-day international games involving England had also been earmarked for rigging.
Pakistan are due to play five 50-over games between Sept 5 and Sept 22, together with two Twenty20 internationals. The Pakistani team manager, Yawar Saeed last night confirmed that the allegations were being investigated, but there was no official comment.
There is no suggestion that the result of the Lord’s Test has been fixed or that any England players have been guilty of any wrongdoing.
The England camp were reported to be expecting play to go ahead today as scheduled.
However, if proven, the claims will cast a huge shadow over the perceived integrity of world cricket, and Pakistan in particular.
The sport in Pakistan is already in turmoil as no international matches can be staged in the country due to concerns over security. Pakistan must instead play all their games abroad,.
Pakistan have been at the centre of match-fixing claims before, most notably in 2000 when former captain Saleem Malik and medium-pacer Ata-ur-Rehman were found guilty of fixing.
A tribunal recommended life bans for the pair, although Rehman was made available for selection in 2006 and Malik’s ban was overturned in 2008.
The most infamous instance of match-fixing was former South Africa captain Hansie Cronje receiving money from bookmakers in return for match information. Cronje was given a life ban from the game in 2000.