Islamabad, December 01: Pakistan cricket plunged into fresh crisis with the bookie Mazhar Majeed revealing that four more players were involved in fixing international matches besides the suspended trio of Salman Butt, Muhammad Asif and Muhammad Aamir.
Mazhar Majeed, the UK based bookie who was at the centre of spot-fixing scandal three month back, claimed that Umar Akmal, Wahab Riaz, Kamran Akmal and Imran Farhat were also on his payroll, helping him do spot fixing.
The video aired by Geo News channel today showed Majeed relaxing on a sofa set at his residence in the United Kingdom talking to a News of the World reporter about his contacts with Pakistani players and who are on board with him in his fixing business.
It is not clear about the date of the video footage but it seemed that it was during Pakistan’s tour of England in August as Majeed talked about Salman Butt as captain.
In the new video, Mazhar, who posed as the agent for the Pakistani cricketers, is heard telling the undercover reporter who posed as a businessman interested in making money from spot fixing that he had seven players on board with him.
The reporter as he settles down in the room asked Majeed, “So what is the latest.”
Majeed then proceeded to take the names of the suspended trio and four other players — Imran Farhat, Kamran Akmal, Umar Akmal and Wahab Riaz as the players who are on board with him.
“I have seven out of 11 players,” Majeed boasted.
He said in the video that he only targetted the younger players as he planned for the future and did not concentrate on senior players.
“I have only targeted younger players in the side as it is long term thinking,” Majeed said.
To a question about how dependable is Salman Butt, Majeed said that the former Test captain is 200 per cent dependable and trustworthy and he will remain Pakistan captain for a long time.
He also talked about Imran Farhat and how he used to do what he was told to do.
He said that senior players like Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Younis Khan and Saeed Ajmal were clean and not involved in corruption.
“Saeed is a very religious man, he will be shocked if he heard us talking,” said Majeed.
International Cricket Council had provisionally suspended Butt, Asif and Aamir after a ‘News of the World’ sting expose showed Mazhar Majeed claiming that the trio were involved in spot-fixing in the fourth Test against England at Lord’s in late August.
Scotland Yard is also investigating into the matter.
Meanwhile, Pakistani selectors today ignored Kamran and Imran Farhat for the forthcoming tour to New Zealand but selected Umar Akmal and Wahab Riaz in the team.
Kamran had said that Mazhar was just an agent for the players and they did not know he was also a bookmaker.
–PTI