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[hastalavistababy]

Yet another scandal rocked Pakistan cricket on Sunday engulfing its captain Salman Butt, brilliant pace duo of Muhammad Asif and Muhammad Aamir and four other players, leading to the arrest of a bookie in London and questioning of the players by the Scotland Yard after a tabloid


Scotland Yard detectives visited the Pakistan dressing room immediately after the third day's play to question the players after the tabloid sting operation exposed 'spot-fixing' and the alleged nexus between the players and bookies.

"Scotland Yard detectives had visited the team hotel where they had taken statements of captain Salman Butt, fast bowlers Muhammad Asif and Muhammad Aamir, and wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal," Pakistan team manager Yawar Saeed told PTI.

The 'News of the World' tabloid alleged that a Pakistani man Mazhar Majeed, who is now under arrest, had paid bribes to the players to bowl no balls in the series and the Lord's Test.

The video evidence that the tabloid has presented also shows Majeed talking about his links with Indian bookies.

"I deal with an Indian party. They pay me for the information," Majeed is quoted as saying.

The International Cricket Council said it was aware of the developments but made it clear that the fourth day's play of the Test will continue as scheduled.

"No players nor the team officials have been arrested in relation to this incident and the fourth Test match will continue as scheduled on Sunday.

"As this is now subject to a police investigation neither ICC, ECB, PCB nor the ground authority, the MCC, will make any further comment," an ICC statement said.

Yawar admitted that the investigators had also spoken to him but denied that the rooms of the players were raided. He also denied seizure of money, laptops and phones of the players from their rooms.

"The police have also spoken to me and we are trying to cooperate with them in every way possible and we are giving them whatever information they want," Yawar said.

But sources said the Scotland Yard detectives gathered some evidence from the hotel after raiding the players' room.

The embattled Pakistan team has also gotten in touch with their High Commission in London for assistance. Confirming this Yawar said, "the High Commissioner is also in touch with the Scotland Yard in this issue. We are cooperating with them."

Besides Majeed, an accomplice of his has also been picked up by the police for questioning. Majeed, 35, was arrested late last night after the tabloid handed over details of its sting operation to the Scotland Yard. The bookie claims to have paid some players in excess of 150,000 pounds to fix the Test match.

"The police have carried out preliminary questioning of some players. Majeed is an old associate and friend of many Pakistani players and is settled in London. He has been seen regularly with the players on the tour," one source said.

"The sad part for the Pakistan cricket is that several leading players are said to be involved in this new scandal which could cause untold damage to Pakistan cricket," he said.

Pakistani TV channels reported that the players had been sounded off about the inquiry when the third day's play ended.

"That is why the players left early for the hotel without anyone attending the mandatory post-play press conference," a source said.

Pakistan had reduced England to 47 for five and then 102 for seven on second day at Lord's but Jonathan Trott and Stuart Broad scored centuries to share a record eighth-wicket partnership of 332 runs.

The two Pakistanis who bowled no balls allegedly on directions from Majeed were Asif and Aamir. Both bowlers delivered three no balls on Thursday and Friday.

The two bowlers delivered the no balls "at precisely the moments promised to our reporter," the tabloid said.

"Our undercover team was posing as front men for a Far East gambling cartel. In return for their suitcase of money Majeed then calmly detailed what would happen - and when - on the field of play next day, as a taster of all the lucrative information he could supply in future," it reported.

Pakistan was bowled out for 74 yesterday and made to follow-on and were reduced to 46 for four at stumps facing certain defeat and a big series loss.

While match-fixing is fixing the result of the whole match, spot-fixing is fixing events within a match, on ball-by-ball basis.

The names of Pakistani players cropped up in match fixing earlier this year as well.

After the tour of Australia, former Pakistan coach Intikhab Alam and assistant coach Aaqib Javed (who is still with the team) had expressed suspicions about Kamran's involvement with bookies after assessing his performance in the Sydney Test.

Meanwhile, Iqbal Muhammad Ali who heads the National Assembly Standing Committee on Sports blamed the PCB and its Chairman Ijaz Butt for the humiliation Pakistan cricket was facing.

"We and the Senate sports committee had warned that if some players were suspected of having ties with bookies they should be dropped from the team and disciplined.

"But no one paid heed. If these players are now guilty we want to see them behind the bars because this conduct is unacceptable," Ali said.

[dhruvdeepak]

this is awesome

[cricinfo]

Pakistan is really amazing  - whether it is sports, politics or religion

[dextrous]

or is it an English conspiracy

[sudzz]

I personally have stopped following cricket altogether, but for this DG I have no links with cricket anymore the only reason why I did it is because whichever game you watch wherever its being played, the lurking suspicion at the back of my mind is that this is a contrived game/sport and the results are pre-decided.

This latest incident only corroborates this belief and further enhances my resolve to basically not watch, follow or discuss cricket.

Iam sure the sport has millions or even billions of fans and one like me won't make a difference but I do feel that the longer this goes on (and I don't see it abating at any time since the stakes are too high) the more people it will alienate or it will draw admirers like the WWE/WWF where everyone knows its all rigged but yet they spend some money just to see organised mayhem but the passion and the true involvement is much much lower.

[Dayal Baba]

I personally have stopped following cricket altogether, but for this DG I have no links with cricket anymore the only reason why I did it is because whichever game you watch wherever its being played, the lurking suspicion at the back of my mind is that this is a contrived game/sport and the results are pre-decided.

This latest incident only corroborates this belief and further enhances my resolve to basically not watch, follow or discuss cricket.

Iam sure the sport has millions or even billions of fans and one like me won't make a difference but I do feel that the longer this goes on (and I don't see it abating at any time since the stakes are too high) the more people it will alienate or it will draw admirers like the WWE/WWF where everyone knows its all rigged but yet they spend some money just to see organised mayhem but the passion and the true involvement is much much lower.

but the problem is not with cricket. what is happening with cricket is symptomatic of the society we live today, where the ruling party can give a ticket to a match-fixer and it does not outrage the nation. the outgoing generation gave sachin, ganguly, kumble, dravid, and luxman, players with unimpeachable integrity and commitment. look at rohit sharma, praveen kumar, virat kolly. do they inspire any confidence?

[SRTian]

I personally have stopped following cricket altogether, but for this DG I have no links with cricket anymore the only reason why I did it is because whichever game you watch wherever its being played, the lurking suspicion at the back of my mind is that this is a contrived game/sport and the results are pre-decided.

This latest incident only corroborates this belief and further enhances my resolve to basically not watch, follow or discuss cricket.

Iam sure the sport has millions or even billions of fans and one like me won't make a difference but I do feel that the longer this goes on (and I don't see it abating at any time since the stakes are too high) the more people it will alienate or it will draw admirers like the WWE/WWF where everyone knows its all rigged but yet they spend some money just to see organised mayhem but the passion and the true involvement is much much lower.

but the problem is not with cricket. what is happening with cricket is symptomatic of the society we live today, where the ruling party can give a ticket to a match-fixer and it does not outrage the nation. the outgoing generation gave sachin, ganguly, kumble, dravid, and luxman, players with unimpeachable integrity and commitment. look at rohit sharma, praveen kumar, virat kolly. do they inspire any confidence?

well said guys.. the integrity generation is past it's prime and the budding crop seems wasted

[sudzz]

I personally have stopped following cricket altogether, but for this DG I have no links with cricket anymore the only reason why I did it is because whichever game you watch wherever its being played, the lurking suspicion at the back of my mind is that this is a contrived game/sport and the results are pre-decided.

This latest incident only corroborates this belief and further enhances my resolve to basically not watch, follow or discuss cricket.

Iam sure the sport has millions or even billions of fans and one like me won't make a difference but I do feel that the longer this goes on (and I don't see it abating at any time since the stakes are too high) the more people it will alienate or it will draw admirers like the WWE/WWF where everyone knows its all rigged but yet they spend some money just to see organised mayhem but the passion and the true involvement is much much lower.

but the problem is not with cricket. what is happening with cricket is symptomatic of the society we live today, where the ruling party can give a ticket to a match-fixer and it does not outrage the nation. the outgoing generation gave sachin, ganguly, kumble, dravid, and luxman, players with unimpeachable integrity and commitment. look at rohit sharma, praveen kumar, virat kolly. do they inspire any confidence?

well said guys.. the integrity generation is past it's prime and the budding crop seems wasted

See I have my opinions on the much revered and loved previous generation as well. This thing is not new and not original, the only thing that is new is the fact that it has gained so much currency that new players come into the team thinking its ok to do so.

[mike11]

Pakistan wow once again...............


although not surprising   !!!!!!!!!

 

[12th_Man]

ok.. Try not to laugh at these allegations :

"My brother has told the family he will swear on the Koran he did not do these things," the brother said, sitting in the modest house built by his grandfather, where Amir was born.

In a room covered with posters that proclaim his brother "the pride of Pakistan", Naveed, who bears a strong resemblance to the floppy-fringed Amir, cited a widespread rumour the Indian intelligence service is behind the spot-fixing revelations by the News of The World. "Enemies of Pakistan" are working to smear the country, he said.

Read on-
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/scandal-knocks-pakistan-bowler-mohammad-amirs-family-for-six/story-e6frg6so-1225914484657
 
IT'S not hard to find the family home of Pakistan's most talked-about teenager.
From Islamabad, take the centuries-old Grand Trunk Road, drive south for a couple of hours and stop to ask a local for "the village of the cricketer".
Cricket-obsessed Pakistan may be home to hundreds of thousands of players, but everybody will know exactly who you mean. They will point you towards Changa Bangyaal, an unassuming hamlet of a dozen houses surrounded by hot, dusty cornfields and the occasional tall cannabis plant.
On the way, you will see big houses here and there, built by emigrants who made their fortunes in perhaps Bradford or New York - but not in Changa Bangyaal, where the buildings are one-storey and whitewashed rough-brick affairs and the alleys between them throng with the grubby, giggling children of poor tenant farmers.   Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.      End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar. It was here that Mohammad Amir, the 18-year-old fast-bowling prodigy at the centre of the biggest scandal in cricket, learned his trade.
By itself, Amir's prowess would have made him a superstar - no other bowler has achieved so much so young. Combined with his humble background - his father served tea in a government college - his ability has propelled the gum-chewing teenager to folk hero status.
Until a week ago, Changa Bangyaal, where virtually the entire population of about 100 people is related to Amir, was giddy with joy at the success of its most famous son.
Inevitably, the claims that he deliberately bowled no-balls in a Test match against England, in exchange for money from an Asian match-fixing syndicate, has knocked the village for six.
"There is no way these allegations are true," said Mohammad Naveed, 20, Amir's brother.
"My brother has told the family he will swear on the Koran he did not do these things," the brother said, sitting in the modest house built by his grandfather, where Amir was born.
In a room covered with posters that proclaim his brother "the pride of Pakistan", Naveed, who bears a strong resemblance to the floppy-fringed Amir, cited a widespread rumour the Indian intelligence service is behind the spot-fixing revelations by the News of The World. "Enemies of Pakistan" are working to smear the country, he said.
Amir's aunt, Tahira Mehmooda, was equally adamant: "That boy grew up in my arms," she said. "I know him and I know this scandal has political roots."
And Mahbood Ahmed, a cousin, said: "This story has been planted to defame Pakistan by slandering a national hero."
Amir has told his mother he has been singled out because of his ability. "He said because he was winning Man of the Match awards, somebody is trying to destroy him," Naveed said.
But there is more than a hint of panic in the family denials. Amir's 30-year-old sister (he is the second youngest of seven siblings) woke before 4am on Friday to eat before fasting through the day for Ramadan. But at dead of night, she went far beyond the usual ritual, walking barefoot for kilometres to a holy shrine to pray for her brother. The inference: perhaps only a miracle can now save a career that a week ago appeared destined for greatness.
Before arriving in England this summer, Amir had tormented the Australian batting order on their home turf. At the Twenty20 world championship last year, his dismissal of Tillakaratne Dilshan of Sri Lanka, the tournament's best batsman, was the decisive moment in the final. Pakistan went on to win.
But it was in the Test during which the spot-fixing scandal broke that he produced perhaps his most impressive display, reducing England to rubble in the first half-hour of the Friday morning session at Lord's in an irresistible spell of left-arm swing bowling.
The teenager had already rewritten the history books by becoming the youngest player to take a five-wicket haul in England. On that day, he was the stuff of legend.
His talent, Naveed said, had been obvious years before, in the fields around his home: "We would play out here and the other children would say, 'Amir, you're going to bowl us all out. Why don't you take a rest?' "
In a country where proper equipment is a luxury for a privileged few, Amir had fine-tuned his searing bouncers in "tape cricket", a version of the game played with a tennis ball wrapped in electrical tape.
According to Naveed, Amir will recite verses from the Koran as he cleans the seam of the ball he is about to bowl. Blessed with a breezy confidence, a winning smile and the gift of the gab, he had appealed to Pakistani mothers as much as their sons. Asked the secret of his success while touring New Zealand, Amir replied with a grin: "It's God's blessing, my parents' prayers and those of the entire nation."
He was, in short, a Pakistani ad-man's dream.
The Times