Saleem Malik’s Confessions Return to Haunt Him and the News of the World a Decade Later – Part 1
While the world awaits the latest on the most dramatic sporting scandal ever: the tabloid that came out with the startling story of Pakistani players’ alleged involvement in match and spot-fixing, the following is an excerpt from another probe that the tabloid made some ten years ago. The probe was carried out by the same reporter, Mazher Mahmood, who has unearthed the match and spot-fixing scandal that rocked the international cricket fraternity some ten days ago.
However, this probe came out a few months after Saleem Malik, former Pakistan captain and batsman, was handed a lifetime ban for his involvement in match-fixing.
The article came to the fore in 2000, on the eve of England’s Test tour to Pakistan. The three-match series was won by the tourists with a win in a dramatic final Test at Karachi.
TNOTW’s Revelations:
Saleem Malik, who has starred for Pakistan and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Essex-c783, promised to RIG the forthcoming Pakistan-England test series for £500,000 per game. Cricket authorities have been combing the world for evidence that will weed out the cancer at the heart of the sport.
Now we have video tapes that sensationally prove Malik is the paymaster they are hunting. These tapes are available to the police AND the International Cricket Council.
Slippery Malik, who has just been CLEARED by a high court inquiry into match-rigging, told our undercover reporters: "It will be very easy for me to fix a match." The players will agree. We've all sat together and done it before. It's better than dealing drugs."
The former batsman, who at his peak captained http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755, met our undercover team at the Kensington Hilton hotel in London late last month.
He believed we were high rollers looking to bet on the results of a game - and without any prompting he asked for money and readily admitted he could provide:
PLAYERS who would throw a match for £200,000 between them. BENT BOOKIES who would also pay a fortune for the knowledge that a game was being fixed.
AN ICC OFFICIAL to act as go-between so Malik would not be seen bribing players directly. He also confessed that cheating was so rife that in one http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 v Pakistan game, players on BOTH SIDES had taken backhanders to throw the match - not realising their opponents were just as bent.
'We know players that are up for it', with a greedy smile, Malik said: "In this business you need to have a bookie. I'll introduce you to an Indian bookie - it all happens in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 - he'll come here to meet you."
It is a MASSIVE business. The bookies pay the match-fixer a percentage because once they know the result they can fleece their more gullible punters.
"When you've got the main players in your hand you'll have to be really unlucky to lose," said Malik, 33.
"Really, there's no chance of losing money. We know which players are up for it. You pay and they will be out. He'll run himself out, whatever, but he will be out. You can throw your wicket."
Malik then reeled off a list of top players whom he claimed to have "worked
with" and said that they were still on his payroll. "You'll have four or five players in hand and they will be playing just for you," he went on. "No matter what the rest of the team do, they will do what they've agreed to do."
End of Part One: The next part has details on the cost of fixing a match and who all were involved in the menace at the time of the compilation of this report.
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