Spot-fixing scandal: How credible is News of the World?
The British tabloid “News of the World (NoTW)” rocked the world of cricket on 29th August 2010 with an article written by their undercover reporter, Mazhar Mehmood, alleging that the Pakistan test captain Salman Butt, wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal,
and two fast bowlers Mohammad Aamir and Mohammad Asif have been involved in spot-fixing during the last test match against England at Lord’s.
The article provided links to videos showing Mazhar Majeed, a book-keeper, taking a huge brief case full of 150,000 pounds from Mazhar Mehmood, the under-cover reporter of NoTW disguised as another book-keeper. In another video link, Majeed tries to show
his full control over Pakistani ace bowlers, Asif and Aamir, by telling Mehmood precisely when the bowlers would bowl no-balls. Majeed was also shown talking to Aamir on speaker phone about the so-called script which needs to be followed in the Lord’s test
match.
Another video link shows http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mazhar-c75448 Majeed handing a jacket full of pounds to Wahab Riaz while Umar Amin looked on. According to NoTW, the London-based fixer Majeed indulged in a betting scam worth 150, 000 pounds with the NoTW reporter Mehmood. Apparently,
the evidence was damning enough to be taken seriously by the Scotland Yard team, who immediately started their probe against the three players. ICC also took strict measures by immediately suspending the alleged players on provisional basis.
On the very next Sunday, NoTW exposed yet another video. This time of Pakistan batsmen Yasir Hameed; he has been quoted by the tabloid as saying “Almost, all the matches of Pakistan are fixed”. The video was made with a hidden mike and camera, with the interviewee
having no clue that he is being interrogated or interviewed. This is called covert reporting and is mostly considered unethical and unprofessional in the world of journalism.
These bold claims of the News of The World have been taken very seriously by ICC, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Scotland-c756 Yard, Pakistan Cricket Board and even the Pakistan High Commission in London. The question which arises is that how reliable is the news provided by this British tabloid
newspaper, secondly how credible is this newspaper in the first place? Critics claim that there have been at least seven cases filed against NoTW due to its controversial reporting, and they have even lost in some of these cases. News of The World is known
to be a gossip newspaper that mostly exposes s*x scandals and affairs of celebrities.
There seem to be many loopholes in the reporting of this entire spot-fixing scandal to begin with, and some have surprisingly gone un-noticed. First of all, there is no proof as to when this video was shot; it could very well be that this video of Mazhar
Majeed was made after the Lord’s test match. Secondly, the picture of the Pakistani players with Mazhar Majeed shouldn’t be considered scandalous as after all he was their agent in actuality. He was supposed to get sponsors, ads and so on for the players.
So if there are pictures or videos of Kamran Akmal, Salman Butt, Umar Amin and Wahab Riaz with Mazhar Majeed, it is not a crime of any sort.
The NoTW could be held answerable on two accounts – first, they have committed a crime themselves by paying the bookie 150, 000 pounds so that he could make sure that spot-fixing occurs. Second – the newspaper has twisted the words of Yasir Hameed. He wasn’t
explicitly saying that ‘almost every match of Pakistan is fixed’. Instead, he was asked by the under-cover reporter that is it true that all the matches are fixed in the Pakistan cricket team, in response to that, Yasir Hameed said “Almost” and when the reporter
further probed by asking “Sure?” Yasir replied “Only God knows, that’s what the reports say, Scotland Yard team has been after these guys.” The statements that are shown in the video are not tallying with what the newspaper has quoted http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Yasir-Hameed-c2811 as saying.
Also, if you look at the video, there is no proof which can be held against the Pakistan Cricket team or any of its players.
Some experts suggest that this could also be a set-up against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755. One proof of that is the perfect placement of the camera when the money was being given to the alleged bookie Mazhar Majeed by the reporter Mazhar Mehmood. It could only be placed this
perfectly if Mazhar Majeed and Mazhar Mehmood would have been working in alliance.
The alleged players haven’t been proven guilty as yet. We can only conjecture as to what is true and what is not? However, believing a newspaper with little credibility is a crime in itself.
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