Who is Mazhar Majeed? Profile of the man behind Pakistan's spot-fixing!
Mazhar Majeed is a 35-year-old sporting agent and a property tycoon who also owns Croydon Athletic Football Club. Born in Croydon, he attended the Coulsdon High School and was a business student at http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Surrey-c851. He is well known in South London and has invited a number of politicians and sports stars to his personal events.
On September 7th 2007, he hosted a cricket charity event with stars like Mark Ramprakash and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Inzamam-ul-Haq-c64383. It was attended by over 200 people for a charity which was formed by Mushtaq Ahmed, the bowling coach of the English cricket team. He lives with his family in a £1.8 million mansion where his neighbours have reportedly claimed that Majeed hosted barbecues for hundreds of guests.
Between 2008 and 2009, pakpassion.net had a regular section called “The Agents Views”, in which his brother Azhar would update readers on the activities of several players including Younis Khan, Abdul Razzaq, Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Yousuf, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482, Kamran Akmal, Misbah ul-Haq, Abdur Rauf and many others.
The same website also reportedly revealed that Mazhar was in Australia during Pakistan’s tour at the start of this year. Pakistan had to go through an embarrassing string of consecutive defeats against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 lost from a position of strength by 36 runs.
Company House files go on to indicate that Mr. Majeed has been a registered director of 28 companies even though most of them are no longer operational. His company Blue Sky began to lose money in the wake of the prevalent recession around the globe. Companies House records show that http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mazhar-c75448 Majeed has five County Court Judgements totalling £74,163 in unpaid bills against its name.
By the year 2008, Majeed had moved into the world of football, becoming the co-owner of Croydon Athletic FC with the intention of promoting it into the Ryman League Premier Division, something that the team managed to achieve last year. Mazhar, who is the central figure at the spot fixing controversy, has spent the past decade building up his image as a successful and well to do businessman.
Soon afterwards, the ‘World of the News’ published reports of Mazhar Majeed being involved in the spot-fixing controversy with a number of Pakistani players being allegedly bribed to bowl no-balls in the final test at Lords. He reportedly received £150,000 for bribing the bowlers to deliver three no-balls.
Scotland Yard has started investigation into the tabloid story, alleging spot-fixing and have raided the rooms of Pakistani players and confiscated some cash and other belongings. The mobile phones of a few players have also been confiscated. Majeed was reportedly arrested by the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Scotland-c756 Yard. However, current reports indicate that he has been released on bail.
Four unmarked cars arrived at the electric gates of his six bedroom mansion, where Majeed lives with his wife and two young daughters where uniformed officers went inside to gather evidence. His neighbour was surprised that Mr. Majeed has been involved with such a controversial news story.
“He always seemed like a pleasant man. He had just bought a block of flats at the back of his house which he was renovating but was having problems getting planning permission from the council.”
His friend Faisal Hameed was also surprised when he found out about his business partners’ involvement in the spot fixing issue. Faisal remarked, “I was totally shocked when I switched on the news and heard what Majeed has been up to. I have always known him as a great guy and a straight-up, totally legitimate businessman, so I found it very hard to believe that he had got involved in something like this.”
This present controversy might mark the end of the cricketing careers of extremely talented players from Pakistan’s national team.
“I can only think that in that position he was presented with opportunities to make a bit of extra money and that the temptation was too great for him,” Faisal added.
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