Cricket Betting Scam Leads To Police Arrest
Written by Cindy Larkin on Sunday, August 29th, 2010
A 35-year-old man was arrested late Saturday by London’s Metropolitan Police in connection with an alleged cricket betting scam on the recently concluded test match between Pakistan and England. This happened after a British tabloid newspaper named News of the World has alleges that Pakistani players were secretly paid to deliberately bowl no-balls in their match.
A “no ball” is when the bowler steps over the line as he throws the ball. The batting team gets a run when that happens. The tabloid has named two players who intentionally did the “no ball” on three occasions during their match last Thursday and Friday. They are Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif. BBC posted that the News of the World claims it gave £150,000 (U.S. $232,800) to a middleman for details about three no-balls which players later bowled at the times predicted.
The newspaper also identified the middleman to be Mazhar Majeed. A video of an undercover reporter meeting him telling the reporter exactly which bowlers would bowl “no balls” and when, then lays out 14 thick stacks of bills on a table has been mentioned in their post.
Because of the above post, the arrest has been made by the Metropolitan Police in response to information provided by the newspaper. Yawar Saeed, Pakistan’s team manager also confirmed that Scotland Yard detectives visited the team hotel where they took statements from [captain] Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif and [wicketkeeper] Kamran Akmal.
These things happening is truly a disgrace to the sport. The managing editor of the News of the World, Bill Akass said that “The idea that any activity during a game is prearranged for money undermines the integrity of an entire sport.”
CNN reported that the News of the World report was co-authored by Mazher Mahmood, a controversial figure in British journalism who has exposed several previous scams. He was responsible for a report in May that revealed Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson offered to sell access to her former husband, Prince Andrew.
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