London/Karachi, Aug 30: Pakistan cricket was engulfed in another betting scandal on Sunday, searing captain Salman Butt, the pace duo of Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamir and four other players, besides leading to the arrest of a bookie in London and questioning of the players by the Scotland Yard after a tabloid sting.
Scotland Yard detectives visited the Pakistan dressing room at Lord’s immediately at the end of third day’s play to question the players after the tabloid sting operation exposed “spot-fixing” and the alleged nexus between players and bookies. It seemed that the scandal doomed the fortunes for the team as it lost the fourth and final Test match at Lord’s on the fourth day. While match-fixing is fixing the result of the whole match, spot-fixing is fixing events within a match, on ball-by-ball basis.
Earlier this year, the names of Pakistani players cropped up in match fixing. After the tour of Australia, former Pakistan coach Intikhab Alam and assistant coach Aaqib Javed (who is still with the team) had expressed suspicions about Kamran’s involvement with bookies after assessing his performance in the Sydney Test.
“Scotland Yard detectives had visited the team hotel where they had taken statements of captain Salman Butt, fast bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamir, and wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal,” Pakistan team manager Yawar Saeed said.
The “News of the World” tabloid alleged that a Pakistani man Mazhar Majeed, who is now under arrest, had paid bribes to the players to bowl no-balls in the series and the Lord’s Test. The video evidence that the tabloid presented also shows Majeed talking about his links with Indian bookies. “I deal with an Indian party. They pay me for the information,” Majeed is quoted as saying.
A statement by the International Cricket Council said it was aware of the development. “As this is now subject to a police investigation neither ICC, ECB, PCB nor the ground authority, the MCC, will make any further comment,” it said.
Yawar admitted that the investigators had also spoken to him but denied that the rooms of the players were raided. He also denied seizure of money, laptops and phones of the players from their rooms.
“The police have also spoken to me and we are trying to cooperate with them in every way possible and we are giving them whatever information they want,” Yawar said. But sources said Scotland Yard detectives gathered some evidence from the hotel after raiding the players’ room.
The embattled Pakistan team has also got in touch with their High Commission in London for assistance.
Confirming this Yawar said, “the High Commissioner is also in touch with Scotland Yard in this issue. We are cooperating with them.”
Besides Majeed, an accomplice of his has also been picked up by the police for questioning. Majeed, 35, was arrested on Saturday night after the tabloid handed over details of its sting operation to Scotland Yard. The bookie claims to have paid some players in excess of £150,000 to fix the Test match.
“You’ll find there’s only a few players who are genuine and who are actually here for the love of the game, and there’s not many believe me. A lot of them are just looking for money, women and food,” Majeed has been quoted as saying in the video tapes of the sting released by tabloid paper.
“The police have carried out preliminary questioning of some players. Majeed is an old associate and friend of many Pakistani players and is settled in London. He has been seen regularly with the players on the tour,” a source said.