A sports agent accused of taking bribes to fix matches said Australian cricketers were “the biggest” culprits and that some of Pakistan’s best-known former players were involved in betting scams, a London court heard on Monday. Agent Mazhar Majeed, 36, told an undercover journalist match-fixing had been going on “for centuries” and named celebrated former Pakistan fast-bowlers Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis as alleged participants, the court heard.
The jury at Southwark Crown Court was played covert recordings of meetings between the agent and former News of the World journalist Mazher Mahmood, who was posing as a rich Indian businessman organising a proposed cricket tournament in the United Arab Emirates. Majeed met Mahmood at a west London restaurant named Bombay Brasserie 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.“It’s been happening for centuries. It’s been happening for years. Wasim, Waqar, Ijaz Ahmed, Moin Khan – they all did it,” Majeed said.
They all did it!
