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Abdul Zahoor Khan
The cost to the image of cricket from the involvement of Indian bookmakers in the manipulation of results has been huge. The game suffered arguably its biggest crisis since the Bodyline series of the 1930s when Delhi Police released the transcript of former South African captain Hansie Cronje’s conversation with an Indian bookie in 2000. Betting is big business in India. One Indian lawyer told Reuters that illegal betting was rife in India and that a one day cricket game between Indian and Pakistan could draw as much as $20 million in illegal bets. Illegal syndicates are thriving, however, and Indian media estimates put the amount bet on last year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) at $427 million. A Delhi trial court judge said gambling on cricket should be legalized to prevent the spoils being spent on criminal activity and to generate revenue for the government.
Former India cricket chief Inderjit Bindra has long been a supporter of legalization for similar reasons and to help the fight against match-fixing. “If betting is legalized, it will be in the interest of the government as not only will it eliminate match-fixing but also earn states revenue in crores (tens of millions),” Bindra, now an adviser at the International Cricket Council (ICC), said two years ago. “My personal view is that if you want anything to be regulated, it has to be legalized.”
Who is the man at the centre of allegations of the latest spot betting scandal, with such great contacts in the Pakistan team and able to literally get them dancing to his tune. Here is all about the bookie who triggered the spot fixing controversy in the Pakistan cricket camp.
Mazhar is married to Indian national, he has one brother Azhar Majeed and two sisters Azra Majeed & Rafia Majeed, Rafia is married to Mr Jamal who is an Indian national and has close links with Indian Bookies. Mazhar Majeed presently residing at 26 Lombard Road Groydon, Surrey, UK, who also owns Groydon Athletic Football Club. He also told the News of The World reporter how he launders match-fixing money through the football club. He said “The only reason I bought a football club is to do that”. He lives in a 1.8 million home in Groydon, with his wife and two daughters. He and owns a Range Rover, a black Jaguar and VW Golf and an Aston Martin.
Mazhar Majeed sporting agent currently under police investigation following reports of cricket ‘match fixing’ following a News of the World sting operation. On Saturday August 28, 2010, he was arrested by Scotland Yard for allegedly fixing a Test match between England and Pakistan in Lord’s. Majeed, along with his brother Azhar, was known to the Pakistani players as an agent who had worked to secure the Pakistani players equipment sponsorships while the players were playing in the United Kingdom. Salman Butt and Saeed Ajmal were reported to have repeatedly thanked Majeed for setting up the interaction. For a while, between 2008 and 2009, Pakpassion also had a regular section called “The Agents Views”, in which Azhar would update readers on the activities of a number of players. Despite his close relationship to the players, dating back to Pakistan’s previous tour of England, the Pakistani players were warned not to associate with Majeed or his brother, as the Pakistan coaching staff did not want the players to have agents in their room. In course of his interactions with News of the World, Mazhar Majeed remarked: “I deal with an Indian party (presumably meaning a bookie or a gambler). They pay me for the information.” He apparently had messages from this person on his Blackberry mobile phone. More on this will undoubtedly be unearthed as Scotland Yard comb through his handset. Mazhar Majeed, the man at the centre of the spot-fixing controversy that has engulfed the ongoing Lord’s Test between England and Pakistan, is known to many members of the Pakistan team as a UK-based agent. Along with his brother Azhar, Mazhar claimed to represent the interests of a number of Pakistan’s top cricketers in the UK. The cricket fans are protesting to ICC that why they not canceled the next upcoming cricket world cup 2011 which major matches are played on the land of bookies. Why they are playing with emotions of cricket fans.
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