 Pakistani cricketers, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, amongst a few of the others have been allegedly involved in match-fixing. According to a sting
operation that was conducted by a tabloid in UK, a man by the name of Mazhar Majeed, is supposed to have indicated to the sting operator from the newspaper
that the likes of Asif and Amir would end up bowling no-balls at times that he
wanted to do so.
In the fourth Test match at Lord's that was played between Pakistan and England,
he had said that the pair will bowl no-balls off the first ball of the third
over and the last ball of the tenth over. That is exactly what happened in the
game and the bowlers are said to have been paid at least 10,000 pounds for the
same. The reporter paid 150,000 pounds to Majeed for the same, according to
the video that was released by the tabloid.
Following this, the Scotland Yard police has got itself involved in the controversy
and has already spoken with the Pakistani players. They have also confiscated
the telephones of Salman Butt, who is said to be the ring-leader in the
controversy, apart from the phones of the likes of Amir, Asif and some of the
other Pakistani cricketers.
It is now left to be seen what is the next step of action, and one is not too
sure whether the ODI series will go on as planned between the two sides. The
two teams play each other in five ODIs and two T20Is.
Pakistan Cricket Board has yet to release an official statement, but the Pakistani
government has condemned the happening and said that if found guilty, the cricketers
will be banned. The ICC has said that they will wait for the report from the
Scotland Yard police before taking any further action.
Earlier, Majeed also claimed that the Sydney Test match of 2010 between Australia
and Pakistan had also been fixed, and that it was at his behest that the Aussies
had got off to a lead of 179 runs. It would be worth remembering that Australia
was struggling in that Test match and that Michael Hussey was dropped three
times by Kamran Akmal.
Mohammad Asif's former girl friend has also added another dimension to the
affair by saying that Asif was a serial match-fixer and that there was an Indian
journalist, Dhiraj Dixit, who was involved as well.
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