Tue, Sep 07, 2010 page20

• Australia-Pakistan Sydney Test under renewed scrutiny

  • AFP
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  Pakistan’s January Test defeat to Australia came under renewed scrutiny yesterday after it emerged an agent at the center of a spot-fixing scandal met players a few weeks after the match.

  The Australian newspaper printed what it said was a photo of Mazhar Majeed, the London-based businessman who has been quizzed by police over the scandal, dining with several players at a Perth restaurant three weeks after the match.

  The report comes after opening batsman Yasir Hameed claimed the Sydney Test, in which Australia recovered from almost certain defeat to record a rousing win, was fixed for illegal bookmaking syndicates.

  

  A Pakistan player runs in front of a sight screen during the first Twenty20 match against England at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff on Sunday.

  PHOTO: AFP

  “In the Sydney Test match they made £1.8 million [US$2.8 million],” Hameed told British newspaper the News of the World in an undercover video recording. “They gave away the match.”

  Hameed has since insisted that his comments were “largely inaccurately reported.”

  Reports also said the International Cricket Council (ICC) had written to wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal, who put down four catches in the Sydney Test, on an unknown matter.

  On Sunday, Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi blasted Hameed as being mentally a teenager.

  One-day skipper Afridi tore into Test batsman Hameed, who claimed he had done nothing more than repeat the allegations of “spot-fixing” being faced by three Pakistan players.

  Afridi vowed to play his part in cleaning up Pakistan’s reputation.

  “We all know we’ve got to get to the bottom of this and we’ll do anything as players, or management, commentators, umpires to eradicate this from the game. It’s as simple as that,” he said.

  The News of the World released footage of Hameed in a bar telling an undercover reporter that some Pakistan players were fixing “almost every match.”

  “They’ve been caught. Only the ones that get caught are branded crooks. They were doing it [fixing] in almost every match,” he was quoted as saying. “It makes me angry because I’m playing my best and they are trying to lose.”

  Following a Twenty20 defeat in the Welsh capital, Afridi said what he thought of 32-year-old Hameed.

  “Mentally he is 15, 16,” he said.

  Asked if Hameed was unreliable, he said: “Yeah, people know which type of character he is.”

  The News of the World claims it paid Mazhar Majeed, an agent for several Pakistan players, £150,000 for advance knowledge of no-balls in last month’s final Test against England. That prompted the ICC to charge Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif.

  Former England captain Geoff Boycott said it was no surprise that Pakistan were repeatedly implicated in corruption scandals, as the cricket authorities had never clamped down hard enough on past cases. The Yorkshireman urged the authorities to offer teenager Amir a plea bargain.

  “Tell the truth about what took place and he can get off with a lighter sentence. If he won’t play ball, then make an example of him,” he wrote in the Daily Telegraph newspaper. “I feel for Amir, because any 18-year-old is likely to get dragged along by his seniors ... As for the others, they should be treated even more harshly, because they have no excuse.”

  Also See: Yardy stars as England triumph

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