Australian and Pakistani Cricketers Heavily Involved in Fixing Matches: Agent

A sports agent has testified before a London court that cricket stars from Australia and Pakistan routinely fixed matches, according to British media.

Appearing as a witness during a corruption trial of former Pakistan captain Salman Butt and fast bowler Mohammad Asif, a cricket agent who himself has been accused of taking bribes, Mazhar Majeed was heard making the accusations during a tape recorded conservation with an undercover reporter.

Majeed claimed that match-fixing had been going on for many years and involved major stars.

It's been happening for centuries,” Majeed said on the recording. “It's been happening for years. [Pakistani cricketers] Wasim [Akram], Waqar [Younis], Ijaz Ahmed, Moin Khan - they all did it.

Noting that Pakistani crickets were paid “peanuts,” Majeed indicated that they were vulnerable to the promise of “big money” by fixing matches.

I've been doing this with the Pakistani team now for about two-and-a-half years, and we've made masses and masses of money, he told the reporter. You can make absolute millions.

Prosecutors allege that Majeed conspired with Butt and Asif to fix parts of the Lord's Test between England and Pakistan last August.

Butt and Asif have denied the charges.

However, Majeed alleged that Australian players were the worst culprits of corruption in cricket.

The Australians, they are the biggest. They have 10 brackets a game, he said in the tape.

Majeed explained to the undercover reporter that it would cost between £50,000 and £80,000 [$78,000 to $110,000] for information about a bracket, £400,000 [$765,000] to fix the result of a 20-20 game, £450,000 [$706,000] for a one-day international and £1 million [$1.57 million] to artificially determine the outcome of a Test match.