Aussie cricketers accused of match fixing

From ABC Online

A London court has been played a tape recording in which a sports agent accused of taking bribes to fix matches claims Australian cricketers are the "biggest" culprits in match fixing.

Agent Mazhar Majeed was covertly taped making the claim during a conversation with an undercover journalist from the now defunct News of the World Sunday tabloid.

The tape was played in Southwark Crown Court at the corruption trial of former Pakistan captain Salman Butt and fast bowler Mohammad Asif.

At the time of the conversation, reporter Mazher Mahmood, the former investigations editor for the newspaper, was posing as a rich Indian businessman seeking major international players for a new tournament.

Mr Majeed told Mahmood Australian players would fix "brackets", a set period of a match on which punters bet, for example, on how many runs will be scored.

"The Australians, they are the biggest, they have 10 brackets a game," Mr Majeed said on the tape played to the court.

He said match fixing had been happening for years, and also named some of Pakistan's best-known former players as being involved in betting scams.

"It's been happening for centuries. It's been happening for years. Wasim, Waqar, Ijaz Ahmed, Moin Khan - they all did it."


Mr Majeed also told the reporter he could make him "absolute millions" from match fixing.

Photo: Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt outside an anti-corruption tribunal in Doha in February. (Mohammed Dabbous : Reuters)

A video secretly filmed in a car showed the agent and the reporter meeting on August 18 last year on the first day of Pakistan's Test against England at The Oval.

Mr Majeed said he would give the journalist proof of his influence by arranging for two no-balls to be bowled, for a fee of 10,000 pounds ($15,700) each, then said a "deposit" of 150,000 pounds was required for further activity.

"I will give you a bracket for the following day ... in terms of a deposit it is going to be 150,000 pounds minimum," the agent said.

"That is going to be for me to pay my six boys a certain amount each. After that I can give you everything we do and every result we do, every bracket we do."

Mr Majeed said he would pay the players to secure their cooperation.

He promised: "I have got the main players. I have got the bowlers and the batsmen and the all-rounders, I have got two-two-two and that is all you need.

"We have got one result already planned and that is in the next three matches, Pakistan will lose.

"Again you know as a cricket game it goes backwards and forwards, it is your responsibility to put it (a bet) on at the right time."

The agent said he would inform Mahmood of "exactly what the players are going to do".

"They will do their job," he promised.

Ironically, Mr Majeed told the journalist: "I know you and I have met you and I'm very good with people and instincts. I believe you are genuine."

Mr Majeed boasted that he knew Hollywood film star Brad Pitt and former world number one tennis player Roger Federer very well, and could arrange for them to promote the new cricket tournament.

Prosecutors allege Mr Majeed conspired with Butt and Asif to fix parts of the Lord's Test between England and Pakistan in August last year.

Butt and Asif, who are standing trial, deny the charges. The trial continues.

and I thought it was Hilditch and the other losers behind the scenes were responsible for our recent dismal efforts

I love how Pitt and Federer get mentions as friends of the agent...maybe the actor and tennis chappie once had curries

Hardly proof. This guy isn't exactly the most honest person that ever lived so I would take everything he says with a pinch of salt.

'friends with Brad Pitt and Roger Federer'

My Dad's better than your Dad.

vilkrang wrote:Hardly proof. This guy isn't exactly the most honest person that ever lived so I would take everything he says with a pinch of salt.

...and the rest of a sizable Siberian salt mine

vilkrang wrote:Hardly proof. This guy isn't exactly the most honest person that ever lived so I would take everything he says with a pinch of salt.

It would explain Mitchell Johnson

Typical Paki reaction to getting caught cheating I'm afraid.

When the Oval fiasco happened, the response in some quarters to them being caught for ball tampering was 'England were doing it too'.

When these cheats were initially busted, the response was 'England players are doing it too'

The cricket world should ban Pakistan from any form of interational matches. Let them play their own games, fixed and rigged to their heart's content, in Pakistan.

vilkrang wrote:Hardly proof. This guy isn't exactly the most honest person that ever lived so I would take everything he says with a pinch of salt.

As far as I understand it, it's another tape.

If this isn't proof, neither is what he said against the Pakistani players, is it?

In which case....

Zat wrote:Typical Paki reaction to getting caught cheating I'm afraid.

.

It sounds like the statement was made before they got caught cheating

G.Wood wrote:

Zat wrote:Typical Paki reaction to getting caught cheating I'm afraid.

.

It sounds like the statement was made before they got caught cheating

Is there a Nobel Prize for stunningly insightful but ostensible non sequiturs?

furriner wrote:

vilkrang wrote:Hardly proof. This guy isn't exactly the most honest person that ever lived so I would take everything he says with a pinch of salt.

As far as I understand it, it's another tape.

If this isn't proof, neither is what he said against the Pakistani players, is it?

In which case....

From the original post (please read it before reflexively jumping to their defence furri)

a tape recording in which a sports agent accused of taking bribes to fix matches claims Australian cricketers are the "biggest" culprits in match fixing.

As opposed to a vdeotape whereby some cheating Pakistani qunt was caught taking large sums of money and planning specific fixes.

Yeah, that's the same thing...

Zat wrote:

furriner wrote:

vilkrang wrote:Hardly proof. This guy isn't exactly the most honest person that ever lived so I would take everything he says with a pinch of salt.

As far as I understand it, it's another tape.

If this isn't proof, neither is what he said against the Pakistani players, is it?

In which case....

From the original post (please read it before reflexively jumping to their defence furri)

Sorry if that is reflexive Zatty.

Will re-read.

Edit: I admit that a "cheatin' Pakistani cricketer" (apologies PP) is a 100 times more likely than an "cheatin' Australian cricketer"*. But a tape (audio) is not to be dismissed easily.


* Farqin qunt of a racist Bhajji Ausssie bastard would be a typical Aussies cricketer in my book. Qunt.

furriner wrote:

G.Wood wrote:

Zat wrote:Typical Paki reaction to getting caught cheating I'm afraid.

.

It sounds like the statement was made before they got caught cheating

Is there a Nobel Prize for stunningly insightful but ostensible non sequiturs?

Not a Nobel Prize but if I was English I would no doubt receive an OBE

Zatty, please to re-read my edits above.

G.Wood wrote:

furriner wrote:

G.Wood wrote:

Zat wrote:Typical Paki reaction to getting caught cheating I'm afraid.

.

It sounds like the statement was made before they got caught cheating

Is there a Nobel Prize for stunningly insightful but ostensible non sequiturs?

Not a Nobel Prize but if I was English I would no doubt receive an OBE

If you were English you would be King.

With a lot of toothless, unhygienic 'subjects'.

Phurt, we all know what will happen. The covert tapes will be deemed insufficient and unreliable evidence, Butt and Asif will get off, the Paksters will not pick them for a while, then all will be forgiven and both will get future games for Pakistan.

furriner wrote:

Zat wrote:

furriner wrote:

vilkrang wrote:Hardly proof. This guy isn't exactly the most honest person that ever lived so I would take everything he says with a pinch of salt.

As far as I understand it, it's another tape.

If this isn't proof, neither is what he said against the Pakistani players, is it?

In which case....

From the original post (please read it before reflexively jumping to their defence furri)

Sorry if that is reflexive Zatty.

Will re-read.

Edit: I admit that a "cheatin' Pakistani cricketer" (apologies PP) is a 100 times more likely than an "cheatin' Australian cricketer"*. But a tape (audio) is not to be dismissed easily.


* Farqin qunt of a racist Bhajji Ausssie bastard would be a typical Aussies cricketer in my book. Qunt.

If the tape was of something actually happening, then yeah. But the tape described in the OP seems to be of a bloke making an allegation, not of anything actually happening. Dare I use the word? I think I must. It is, at best, hearsay...

I'm very confused by all this now...

Furry will be back to debate your point after he has a poo

Australia must have players fixing stages in matches. How else would you explain the way they suddenly turned the SCG match against Pakistan around at the start of 2010? I mean the boys were gawn in that match, they had no right to win it, but then suddenly managed to bowl their way to an unlikely win, simply by playing much better than they had for the first three innings of the match.

I can't find any other explaanation, other than the Aussie players being as corrupt as f*ck and lying doggo to start with before playing to their full potential to finish the match.

On the nooz it said it was all about brackets, fixing the number of runs scored in certain over brackets being the most common fix.

Last summer the bracket must have been five tests and the number of runs must have been five eighths of one third of two fifths of the square root of farqall ....fixers must have made a fortune

furriner wrote:
If you were English you would be King.

With a lot of toothless, unhygienic 'subjects'.

Oh, c'mon furry. Stop playing Unc Tom to these squinters. If you reckon there's credence in Majeed's comments, stick to your guns. Don't give it the tired 'yes boss' routine.

Zat wrote:Australia must have players fixing stages in matches. How else would you explain the way they suddenly turned the SCG match against Pakistan around at the start of 2010? I mean the boys were gawn in that match, they had no right to win it, but then suddenly managed to bowl their way to an unlikely win, simply by playing much better than they had for the first three innings of the match.

I can't find any other explaanation, other than the Aussie players being as corrupt as f*ck and lying doggo to start with before playing to their full potential to finish the match.

Are you thick or something? The were chucking the match, then were paid more handsomely to win. How incredibly naive.