What the heck is going on at Lord's? We take our eyes off the sporting world for 24 hours, and look what happens; the Pakistani's are once again accused of match-fixing. Cricinfo reports:
The fourth Test between England and Pakistan at Lord's is at the centre of a police investigation into spot-fixing following the arrest of a 35-year-old man, Mazher Majeed, who was allegedly caught claiming to have bribed Pakistan's bowlers to bowl no-balls on demand.
According to a report in The News of the World, Majeed accepted £150,000 to arrange a fix involving Pakistan's new-ball bowlers, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif, whom he allegedly asked to bowl no-balls at specific moments of the match. The paper also alleges that the team captain, Salman Butt, and the wicketkeeper, Kamran Akmal, are involved, along with three other unnamed cricketers.
Cricinfo understands that the players named were questioned about sums of money found in the rooms, though it is thought that those were made up of the daily allowances players are given while on tour. The man arrested, Majeed, is believed to have contacts with the team though until now it was assumed he was acting as an agent for players, helping them secure sponsorship and kit contracts.
Officials from the ICC's Anti-Corruption Unit are currently flying in from Dubai, and in a statement, the ICC confirmed that the allegations were being taken seriously.
And why, we wonder, is the common denominator in match-fixing allegations the Pakistani cricket team? The more things change, the more they stay the same ...
UPDATE: Cricinfo is the place to get all the latest information on this scandal, as Pakistan crashes to its worst ever test match defeat in very dodgy circumstances.
0 comments:
Post a Comment