England completed a crushing innings and 225 run victory over Pakistan in the fourth and final Test at Lord’s yesterday on a morning overshadowed by corruption allegations.
Police arrested a 35-year-old man on Saturday after a British newspaper said Pakistan players had been involved in spot fixing, the illegal practice of manipulating incidents within the course of the match.
In an innings in keeping with an unusual game, Umar Akmal smashed 79 not out from 68 balls, including two sixes in a total of 147.
PHOTO: AFP
He shared a last-wicket partnership of 50 with Mohammad Asif, who contributed only 1, but still could not prevent Pakistan tumbling to their biggest defeat in Tests.
England won the series 3-1 after dominating the first two Tests, before they were defeated by four wickets in the third match at The Oval. Pakistan, who played six Tests in seven weeks, drew 1-1 with Australia earlier in the season.
Pakistan resumed at 41 for four in their second innings before a scattering of spectators on a dull, overcast day.
They left their north London hotel late on Sunday morning and did not take part in the usual team warm-up before play began.
Off-spinner Graeme Swann, who took four for 12 in Pakistan’s first innings of 74, was again the destroyer with five for 62.
Swann bowled Azhar Ali for 12 and Mohammad Amir for a duck as three wickets fell in the space of 11 balls.
Wahab Riaz was caught by Kevin Pietersen at mid-on off Swann without scoring, before Umar Akmal flourished with a frenetic innings, including a huge six over long-on in his first half-century of the series.
Police questioned Pakistan’s players after British newspaper the News of the World alleged in its edition yesterday that they were secretly paid to deliberately bowl no-balls during Thursday’s opening day of the Test.
Players entered the Lord’s dressing room area yesterday morning through a different side entrance to avoid waiting photographers and TV cameras.
The News of the World says it secretly filmed video footage of its undercover reporters, posing as front men for a Far East gambling cartel, in discussion with a man it identifies as London-based businessman Mazhar Majeed, who appears to accept £150,000 (US$232,000) in order to make sure no-balls are bowled at certain times during the match.
The newspaper says it has passed all its evidence to police.
Scotland Yard said in a statement: “Following information received from the News of the World we have today arrested a 35-year-old man on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud bookmakers.”
The 35-year-old man was later yesterday confirmed to be Mazhar Majeed by his brother and business partner, Azhar Majeed.
The News of the World quoted Majeed as saying up to seven players in the Pakistan team could be “bought” for cash.
“I’ve been doing it [match-fixing] with them for about two and a half years and we’ve made masses of money,” Majeed said.
Video of the meeting between the undercover reporter and Majeed appears to show the businessman accepting the money and insisting that the three no-balls “have been organized” with the Pakistan team.
Azhar Majeed said he believed the allegations against his brother were “just rubbish.”
“I found it not laughable, because you don’t laugh at things like that, but I thought it was just rubbish,” Azhar Majeed said.
“I saw the video of Mazhar sitting there counting out money on the table. They are alleging it was for match fixing ... I have absolutely no idea about it whatsoever,” he said.
Azhar Majeed, who says he and his brother are player agents, admitted he had been asked to leave Pakistan’s team hotel during the third Test at The Oval after the team’s security manager told him he was top of the list of people banned from entering players’ rooms.
“Security kept on hassling me and I couldn’t understand what it was for, the reason I was top of the list,” Azhar Majeed said. “I couldn’t understand why. I found it a bit ludicrous for him to be chucking me out of hotel. Politely I went, but I have absolutely nothing to hide.”
In Pakistan, parliamentarian Iqbal Mohammad Ali, who also heads the lower house’s standing committee on sports, called for the players in question to be sacked from the team ahead of the two Twenty20 and five one-day internationals against England.
“Whosoever is involved should be banned for life,” he said. “All those who are suspected should be sent back home.”
Any player found guilty of involvement in match-fixing faces a life ban from the sport.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but