Cricket Special Edition: Rashid Latif digs deep in match & spot-fixing scandal (Part One)
Former http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Rashid-Latif-c84084 has revealed more information on his finding about the ongoing match and spot-fixing scandal that rocked international cricket last week.
Here is part one of his scathing attack on international cricket and The News of the World that took the lid off the scandal.
Following is the analysis of the case by Rashid.
“Match or player-fixing is a part and parcel of game but it mostly happens in sports like football and cricket. In this latest case, I am sure that Mazhar Majeed and Mazhar Mehmood are working together on a single agenda of making money. In this controversy only two parties got benefited (1) News of the World (2) Mazhar Majeed.
Mazhar Majeed, who is already a millionaire, must have charged a hefty sum of money for this story published in the News of the World (NOTW). As far as I know, Mazhar’s brother Azhar Majeed owns a company named TBL, which manages players and entire signings in 2006 and 2007 of Pakistani players were handled by Azhar Majeed’s company.
I have no doubt in my mind that Mazhar Majeed had meetings with boys and at any point I am not trying to prove the cricketers as innocent, but in view of my experience I can see some utter ambiguities in the whole saga.
In my opinion, the story by the NOTW that took the world by storm, was released a bit too early, which indicates that they lack solid evidence against the players or their sole purpose is to make money rather than cleanse the game of cricket. Later, the way Yasir Hameed was recorded clearly shows that they needed more evidence against Amir, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 and wanted Salman Butt, who he claimed to control, to get the job.
Here my point is that if they were on a mission to expose the corruption in cricket then they should have waited for the ODI series to get over, and with the help of the ICC, the Anti-Corruption Unit and the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Scotland-c756 Yard they could easily expose the culprits. It is also possible that upon an offer of fixing ODIs the boys might have turned it down. It was strange for a person like me, who has been working against this malpractices since last 15 years that why did not they wait for the ODI series?
In my playing career, I witnessed such incidents many times, and I can recall at least two occasions where Mazhar Mehmood was involved. In 2000 during a tour to the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mazhar-c75448 Mehmood tried to trick Saleem Malik but again the former captain became saviour and Malik put the second meeting with Mazhar Mehmood on hold but in first meeting with Malik and Mazher Mehmood, Malik disclosed some ICC officials also involved. Normally, at first they ask players not to lose a match but do a bit of spot-fixing such as delivering deliberate NO or WIDE balls, but in the next phase players are pushed for fixing matches also.
It is widely believed that only Pakistani players are involved in this practice, but I have seen it all very closely, and I can easily say that players from every country do it. The problem with Pakistani or even with Indian players is that they get friendly with strangers within no time. In contrast, players from other countries remain careful and deal cautiously with random people. I am not trying to prove that the Pakistani players are innocent but I have made a resolve to get to the bottom of this issue.”
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