Shame: Pakistan again in match fixing quagmire

[Daredevil]

Pakistan match-fixing claims: player 'hid mobile phone in his helmet while waiting to bat'

A Pakistan player concealed a mobile phone inside the helmet he was wearing as he waited to bat during a recent international match, one of his team-mates has alleged.


By Scyld Berry

A former Pakistan Test cricketer, who was told of the incident by this player's team-mate, has passed on the allegation to the International Cricket Council's Anti-Corruption and Security Unit. The use of mobile phones by players is strictly forbidden anywhere on the ground during an international match under ICC regulations designed to prevent communication between match-fixers and players.

The former Test cricketer, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, said he rang the ACSU hotline after being told recently of the claim by the current Pakistan player. The phone was hidden inside the right earpiece of the helmet of the player waiting to bat, he alleged.

"My reaction was one of disbelief," the former Test cricketer said on Saturday. "I had reason to suspect things were going on in international cricket, and you never had total confidence in certain games because of the rumours about match fixing and spot fixing. But when I was told about this player with the mobile inside his helmet, I was flabbergasted."

This revelation comes at the end of perhaps the most disturbing week cricket has seen in England, following last Sunday's newspaper allegations of spot fixing by three Pakistan players in the Lord's Test. Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif were all provisionally suspended by the ICC on Thursday evening after allegations of bowling deliberate no-balls in the fourth Test between England and Pakistan. They were questioned by police in London on Friday but were released without charge.

 

[Pintu]

The Press Association: Hasan: Banish players if guilty

Hasan: Banish players if guilty

(UKPA) – 58 minutes ago

Pakistan's High Commissioner to the UK wants the trio of players accused of spot-fixing "banished" from cricket if they are found guilty.

Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer have been suspended following last weekend's allegations in the News of the World and are the subject of police and International Cricket Council investigations. All three deny any wrongdoing.

Wajid Shamsul Hasan believes that if the allegations are proved correct, all three should be issued with a "most draconian penalty".

"It's the responsibility of the ICC to take any appropriate action and only they have the authority to ban them for life," he told BBC Radio 5 live's Sportsweek programme.

"But if the evidence that the News of the World is supposed to have is proven correct and is admissible in a court of law, I would banish them from cricket.

"If they are found guilty they must be punished properly, not only banned for life but I would see that they are prosecuted properly in a court of law.

"They must be given sentences so that we would not see these sort of characters in sport because they are spoiling the whole history of the game.

"If they are found guilty of anything they will be given a most draconian penalty because they have been responsible for bringing a bad name to cricket, their country and the team."

 

[Pintu]

AFP: Imran Khan laments new Pakistan allegations

Imran Khan laments new Pakistan allegations

(AFP) – 1 hour ago

KARACHI — Former Pakistan cricket captain Imran Khan on Sunday called for stronger national institutions to prevent corruption scandals undermining the country's favourite sport in the future.

"This whole episode of cricket reflects what is happening in the country," Khan told reporters in Pakistan's central city of Multan during a flood relief campaign.

"We are regarded as a corrupt country because our institutions are not strong and the same thing is happening in cricket because of ad-hocism in the game."

Pakistan's spot-fixing crisis deepened on Sunday after an undercover reporter for a British newspaper allegedly caught opening batsman Yasir Hameed claiming some of his team-mates had been fixing "almost every cricket match."

Hameed's interview, published in the News of the World, followed last Sunday's allegations that Pakistani cricketers -- Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamir -- accepted offers from an apparent bookmaker to deliberately bowl no-balls during the fourth test against England at Lords.

The trio were suspended by the International Cricket Council, but Khan said the latest revelations will further damage cricket in Pakistan.

"Pakistan cricket has suffered the greatest set-back and it's going on and on with further claims of players' involvement.

"We have to make our institutions strong because the future of the country is bright and we should not spoil it," said Khan, who is head of his political party, Tehrik-e-Insaaf (Movement For Justice).

Former spinner Tauseef Ahmed said the latest allegations will hurt the game.

"Hameed's interview is very damaging and will go against Pakistani players," said Ahmed. "I fear we won't be able to stop this rot now."

 

[luckyy]

Pakistan match-fixing claims: player 'hid mobile phone in his helmet while waiting to bat'

A Pakistan player concealed a mobile phone inside the helmet he was wearing as he waited to bat during a recent international match, one of his team-mates has alleged.
.

ICC can take the help of some " lip reader" to get what amir was speaking on ....

pakistan team manager then said that amir just holding the gril of his helmet....but the vedio shows that he is actually taking....to whom ?...no one was seating aside him....

 

[Vinod2070]

Pakistan Cricket: The fibbers off the field

By Trevor Chesterfield | September 05, 2010

Pakistan's incompetent cricket board tries to escape consequences through bluff, bluster and jingoism. World cricket must not let them

From the time they were exposed as cheats four years ago over the ball tampering issue at The Oval, there has been a growing stench about modern Pakistan cricket -which has developed the habit of eschewing openness and with it, integrity.

That was a moment when Darrell Hair, and the strict and fair umpiring levels employed, were questioned by those who knew they had been fiddling with the ball; then they lied about it to escape being shown up as villains in a dishonest caper, all against the tenets of fair play.

With such a background, it should surprise no one that such Luddites as these have again openly displayed how their management is as dysfunctional, maladjusted and incompetent as it has been since the early 1990s. Ijaz Butt, the current president of the Pakistan Cricket Board is as fundamentally flawed in his administration as he was over the disastrous terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka cricket team's bus in Lahore in March 2009. In the latest series of events in England, bowlers are said to have been involved in a no-ball betting scam. It is the tip of an unsavoury pile of garbage that has been collecting on its doorstep unmonitored for years -that has only become worse post Ijaz Butt, a pretentious Test player whose one moment of fame on the field was as a substitute.

In Pakistan's first tour of the West Indies in 1957-58, during the third Test in Kingston, Jamaica, Butt managed to run out Conrad Hunte for 260 in his partnership of 446 with Sir Garfield Sobers for the second wicket. Sobers went in to score the then world record of 365 not out in a West Indies total of 790 for three, declared. Recalling the incident, the warm-hearted Hunte said how he and Sobers had forgotten Butt had been brought on for Saeed Ahmed, who had temporarily gone off for minor finger injury repairs.

Butt, in his new avatar, says that without "proof", there will be no suspension of players. Such an interesting premise he has adopted here, as Pakistan try to cover with bluff and jingoism their already tarnished image.

Back in June, during the Asia Cup, there was an incident where Mohammad Amir was shown on television doing something he shouldn't be doing: he had a mobile telephone clamped to his right ear just before going out to bat against Sri Lanka at Rangiri Stadium, in Dambulla. As it was caught, during a lapse of security, by a non-rights television channel camera pointed in the bowler's direction, it came out, and became an embarrassing moment. What a hissy fit it caused as well. Caught in the act, management naturally tried to fib their sordid way out of this one.

"Oh, he was adjusting his helmet," was the official excuse.

The point of this is that that was the moment that Amir was being instructed by the new con-artist in the M.K. Gupta mould, Mazhar Majeed. If it can be taken at face value, the following is repeated from the News of The World where Majeed talks about the Asia Cup game.

Majeed: "We don't do results that often. The last one we did was against Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup which was about two months ago. And you get a script as well."

Neither the Asia Cricket Council nor Sri Lanka Cricket have kicked up a fuss so far over this claim of how a game was fixed.

The SLC hierarchy have a problem of their own to handle, with player indiscipline.

Rameez Raja, the former Pakistan captain and board chief executive, remembered on the BBC programme Test Match Special how, in Sri Lanka in 1994, team manager Intikhab Alam confided to him how legends of the game were "fixing" matches on that tour.

Weeks later, in South Africa, Salim Malik, peering at Hansie Cronjé with his characteristic obsequious smirk, sought confirmation from Cronjé at Newlands, in Cape Town, whether "John had called with an offer". This was January 10, 1995, as the two captains went out to the toss. Cronjé later admitted to a feeling of embarrassment at having to acknowledge there had been a call from "John".

That was the point at which Cronjé had crossed the line. Since then they have been allowed to get away with a variety of misdeeds; it contributed to an institutional culture in which it is easier to deny and lie than tell the truth.

Butt, as did Javed Miandad, has an ego the size of the Himalayas. They bluster their way through while the corruption mounts, but little is done to curb the growing problems. Chris Broad and Simon Taufel still have nights of cold sweat over the way they were strafed in the Sri Lanka players' van, and left like "sitting ducks" on March 3 last year. These were claims Butt and other PCB officials also lied about. Why did it take 15 months or longer before pressure was brought to bear by the International Cricket Council on the report which condemned the PCB's role in March 3 security? Remember, seven policemen were left dead on the streets of Lahore; all the terrorists escaped.

This year, to give Pakistan a "home" venue, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) staged a "spirit of cricket series" with Australia. And this is how the team behaves, as well as its discredited management.

If cricket is to become a respected international sport, it needs to have a transparent image, not one where bookies can manipulate results. It is why all South Asia-linked agents need to be investigated by the ICC and register with them, as a way to get rid of the ogres and match-fixers now poisoning the game.

Columns: Pakistan Cricket: The fibbers off the field | Trevor Chesterfield

 

[The Messiah]

:emot15:................:happy_2:................:emot15:

 

[Pintu]

UK cops recover 15K pounds from Butt's hotel room - The Economic Times

5 Sep, 2010, 08.14PM IST,AGENCIES
UK cops recover 15K pounds from Butt's hotel room

London: British police have found between 10,000 pounds and 15,000 pounds in cash in team captain Salman Butt's hotel room, which they are claiming was part of the 150,000 pounds handed to cricket fixer Mazhar Majeed by a News of the World undercover team last week.

Smaller amounts were recovered from the rooms of Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif - who between them bowled three pre-arranged no-balls ordered by Majeed in the Lord's Test against England.

According to the NOTW, the cops are also trying to track down Swiss bank accounts Majeed claimed he opened for players to hide match-rigging money.

In the wake of the exposé which rocked the sport, police armed with warrants swooped on the Pakistan team's hotel - the Marriot in Swiss Cottage, North London - and searched the rooms of Butt, Amir and Asif.

Officers even examined the changing room at Lord's used by the Pakistan team.

A source close to the investigation told us: "Not all the money has been recovered. The cash seized is not a life-changing sum. It is more like pocket money for the players. Work is now going on to find out where the rest of the money has gone."

Officers from Scotland Yard's Economic Specialist Crime team are looking closely at 35-year-old Majeed's claims that he secreted thousands of pounds in secret offshore accounts and laundered money through his football club, Croydon Athletic FC.

During a press conference at Lord's this week, ICC anti-corruption chief Sir Ronnie Flanagan said: "The conclusion that we have come to is that there is a really arguable case to answer."

 

[Pintu]

We must go after the corrupt and not cricket: Pak senator - Top Stories - Cricket - Sports - The Times of India

We must go after the corrupt and not cricket: Pak senator
PTI, Sep 5, 2010, 04.04pm IST

KARACHI: Cricket must not suffer because of corruption, said Pakistan's Senate Standing Committee on sports member Tahir Mashadi as he urged the PCB to let the team's tour of England go on despite the embarrassment caused by the 'spot-fixing' scandal.

"My personal thing is that we should go after the corrupt and corruption. We should not go after cricket, it must go on," said Mashadi.

Mashadi said PCB chief Ijaz Butt is under the scanner of the Pakistan parliament which is keeping a close watch on the affairs of the cricket board.

"Something is wrong in the PCB, definitely. It needs to be right, especially its chairman and people at the helm of affairs at the moment," Mashadi said.

Three Pakistani players -- Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer -- have been implicated in the scandal which has grown in proportion after former opener Yasir Hameed's claim that his teammates were involved in fixing "almost every match".

"Nothing should be done to spare those who are found guilty," Mashadi told a news channel.

Even as the fate of the two Twenty20 matches and the ODI series between England and Pakistan hung in balance, Mashadi said that he is waiting for the Scotland Yard to finish its investigation as quickly as possible.

The suspension imposed on the three accused players by the ICC has not gone down well with some PCB officials, and Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan's High Commissioner to Britain, has blamed it on ICC president Sharad Pawar.

"I think it's very unfortunate, I don't think these sort of allegations should be made. Politics should take place in political arena, diplomacy in diplomatic and cricket in cricket arena," he said.

 

[Quickgun Murugan]

Future of Pakistan Cricket

 

[johnee]

No need to even take a stand against. We should just be neutral and not try to rescue them as we have done many times earlier.

Let them shape out or ship out.

TR, allah is conspiring against them and I suspect some of them may be suspecting this possibility. But since they cant blame the almighty, they end up blaming India, or US or Israel... :happy_2:

 

[Daredevil]

Kamran Akmal spotted with Match-fixer Majeed (in the back seat)

And the Pakistani team with the match-fixer in Australia

 

[Quickgun Murugan]

Kamran Akmal spotted with Match-fixer Majeed (in the back seat)

And the Pakistani team with the match-fixer in Australia

Heck I want to be a bookie. Look at his lifestyle. :angry_1:

Even if caught there is nothing called enough evidence to convict them anyway.

 

[Daredevil]

Does this match result look fixed??. This is the match between India and Pakistan in first T20WC. Its a bowl out for declaring result.

 

[Yusuf]

All matches played by pak in the last few years are under the scanner. About 80 odd matches.

 

[dineshchaturvedi]

I think match fixing has become part of their team. Look at a 18 new comer ia involved, goes to show how easily people approach new comers without fear. This cannot happen without protection.

 

[Ray]

Cricket has been made real interesting, not on the field, but off the field.

Even the IPL was a daily dose of adrenal every morning as one opened the newspaper with a steaming up of tea at the bedside!

Kuch to hua, yeh hua.

 

[Ray]

Pakistan govt, Pakistan Cricket Board and Pakistanis worry much about their national prestige, image and name.

Hence, they live in a state of denial.

They think they are pure and they want to live it up in delusion while working hard to hone their impure thoughts and deeds!

 

[Vinod2070]

Pakistan govt, Pakistan Cricket Board and Pakistanis worry much about their national prestige, image and name.

Hence, they live in a state of denial.

They think they are pure and they want to live it up in delusion while working hard to hone their impure thoughts and deeds!

Yes, most seem to be more concerned with their image rather than the substance behind the rotten image.

What they can't seem to understand is that they have to get the substance right for the image to change. Since that is too much work, they would rather take the easier option of denial and believing in conspiracy theories.

Now the Pakistani edition of the Newsweek magazine has published this cover for its inaugural edition.

Many of them want to literally believe that they are indeed the bravest nation. Why?

Just because they are still pulling through despite all the extremism, incompetency, terror and much worse!

The international edition of the same magazine called Pakistan a failed country some time ago and the same people were calling it a conspiracy then.

If they can't face the truth, they are not the bravest. Most cowardly would be an apt description.

 

[smartindian]

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/images/2010/09/07/20100907_03.jpg

 

[luckyy]

ICC asks Butt, Akmal for phone records during Asia Cup: report

ICC asks Butt, Akmal for phone records during Asia Cup: report - Yahoo! India News

Tue, Sep 7 10:28 AM
London, Sep 7 (PTI) The International Cricket Council has reportedly asked Pakistan''s suspended Test captain Salman Butt and wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal to give their mobile phone records for an investigation into possible spot-fixing during the Asia Cup in June. According to the ''Daily Mail'', Akmal and Butt were contacted by the ICC after "suspicions arose during the Asia Cup.

" The ICC''s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit have told the duo to release details of their mobile phone records during the tournament in Sri Lanka. "They expect the full cooperation of both players but have yet to receive a response from the Pakistan camp," the newspaper reported.

The ICC reportedly wrote to them on August 21, days before a British tabloid''s sting operation had Butt implicated in a spot-fixing scandal leading to his suspension pending an inquiry. The newspaper also reported that 18-year-old pace sensation Mohammad Aamir "will be told he could avoid a life ban if he gives evidence against his team-mates" in the ongoing inquiry into the spot-fixing charges against him, Butt and Mohammad Asif.