Pakistanis accused of match fixing in the third test at Lords

**nag rocks** · 08-29-2010

The fourth Test between England and Pakistan at Lord's is at the centre of a police investigation into spot-fixing, after a 35-year-old man was arrested after allegedly being caught offering to bribe Pakistan's bowlers to bowl no-balls on demand.

According to a report in The News of the World, Mazher 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 from a source close to the investigation that a sum of £25,000 was found in the room of one of the Pakistan players, with further sums of £3000-4000 found on two other players. The source also confirmed that Mazher was known to the team, but in an informal capacity, and added that they fully expected to resume the Lord's Test on Sunday morning.

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.

In a video secretly recorded during the NOTW investigation, a man alleged to be Mazher is clearly heard predicting that Amir would bowl the first over of the England innings, and that he would deliver a no-ball from the first ball of the third over - which as Cricinfo's ball-by-ball commentary noted: "was an enormous no-ball, good half a metre over the line." The man also appeared to correctly predict a no-ball from the sixth ball of the tenth over, bowled this time by Asif.