Agent Mazhar Majeed told an undercover journalist that Australian cricketers and Pakistan stars were involved in betting scams. Photo / Getty Images
A cricket agent accused of taking bribes to fix matches claimed that Australian players were "the biggest'' when it came to rigging games, a London court heard on Monday.
Mazhar Majeed, 36, told an undercover journalist that Australian cricketers and Pakistan stars were involved in betting scams, Southwark Crown Court was told.
Majeed boasted that he knew Hollywood star Brad Pitt and tennis ace Roger Federer "very well'' and could arrange for them to promote a proposed cricket tournament in the United Arab Emirates, the court heard.
The jury was played covert recordings of meetings between the London-based agent and former News of the World journalist Mazher Mahmood, who was posing as a rich Indian businessman seeking major international players for the tournament.
Majeed met Mr Mahmood at a west London restaurant on August 18 last year - the first day of Pakistan's Oval Test against England - and after the meal discussed match-fixing in the undercover reporter's car, the court was told.
Majeed alleged that Australian players would fix "brackets'', a set period of a match on which punters bet, for example, how many runs will be scored.
"The Australians, they are the biggest. They have 10 brackets a game,'' he said in the tape played to the court.
Claiming match-fixing had been going on "for centuries'', he named celebrated former Pakistan fast bowlers Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis as alleged participants.
"It's been happening for centuries. It's been happening for years. Wasim, Waqar, Ijaz Ahmed, Moin Khan - they all did it.''
Majeed complained that Pakistan cricket players were paid "peanuts'' but said there was "very big money'' to be made from match-fixing.
"I've been doing this with the Pakistani team now for about two-and-a-half years, and we've made masses and masses of money,'' he told the reporter.
"You can make absolute millions.''
The agent said his players did not often fix the outcomes of matches but added: "We're doing two results coming up soon, within a month.''
He told Mr Mahmood it would cost between STG50,000 ($NZ100,000) and STG80,000 ($NZ160,000) for information about a bracket, STG400,000 ($NZ800,000) to fix the result of a Twenty20 game, STG450,000 ($A720,000) for a one-day international and STG1 million ($NZ2m) to rig the outcome of a Test match.
Majeed alleged that it was the Pakistan cricketers who asked him to get involved in match-fixing.
He said in the tape played to the jury: "The players will never tell anybody else. They're the ones that approached me about this. This is the beauty of it.
"I was friends with them for four or five years. And then they said this happens and I said 'really?' and I was so innocent of it.''
At an earlier meeting with the undercover journalist at the Hilton hotel in Park Lane, London, on August 16 last year, Majeed claimed he could recruit Pitt, Federer and other celebrities to bring some glitz to the proposed UAE cricket tournament.
He told the journalist he managed 10 Pakistan cricketers, as well as "a couple of Indian players'', Australian fast bowler Nathan Bracken and West Indian all-rounder Chris Gayle.
The agent claimed he was involved in Arsenal's youth academy, worked "very closely'' with the Pakistan Cricket Board and "knew everyone'' at Sky Sports.
The jury has been told that Majeed owned Croydon Athletic Football Club and a chain of ice cream parlours called Afters.
Majeed boasted that he knew "all the agents'', including the representative of former Australian captain Ricky Ponting.
The undercover reporter indirectly referred to match-fixing at the end of the meeting, saying two or three players were needed "on the betting side''.
The agent replied: "There's more than two or three, believe me, it's already set, it's already there.''
Mr Mahmood gave evidence to the court from behind a screen shielding him from the public gallery.
Only his hands were visible as he turned the pages of a file containing transcripts of the undercover meetings with Majeed or took an occasional sip of water.
Prosecutors allege that Majeed, from south London, conspired with Pakistan's former Test captain Salman Butt and fast bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir to fix parts of the Lord's Test between England and Pakistan in August last year.
Butt and Asif, who are standing trial, deny conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to accept corrupt payments.
- AAP
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