Match-fixing, Violence, and Cricket

The cricket lovers in Pakistan and all around the world are still shocked on the recent episode of match fixing and spot fixing scandal and they are demanding strict and stern actions against the culprits.

Mohammad Aamer trapped???

This all started when the British newspaper ‘News of the World’ published a story on Saturday in which they trapped a bookie Mazhar Majeed through their under-cover reporter Mazhar Mahmood. The paper claimed that their reporter achieved the confidence of agent of Pakistani players in England and who made deals for their sponsorship, marketing and counties contracts.

35-year-old Mazhar Majeed, known as property tycoon in the UK and owns a football club Croydon Athletic Football Club, is actually a bookie who worked for India-based syndicate which is involved in match fixing, spot fixing and fancy fixing, not only in cricket but other popular sports as well like football etc.

Mazhar Majeed and his brother Azhar Majeed, who are actually British citizens but their forefathers were from Faisalabad, Pakistan. Both run a company which acts as an agent for the players mostly Pakistani players but their actual business is match fixing and betting. Both settled in England from last many years and Mazhar married to Indian lady in UK while his sister also married to the Indian man.

Salman Butt in company of match fixers

Mazhar worked very closely for the Indian bookies and he is a part of the syndicate who convince the players for match fixing by offering them money, luxuries, properties and even women but if any cricketers resist against this syndicate which worked under the mafias and under-world gangs forced they players by threatening them for their life and their family members life.

Match fixing is not a new phenomenon in cricket. It started in Sharjah in late 1980s when cricket gained popularity and Abdur Rehman Bukhatir was the in-charge of cricketing affairs in UAE. It was first highlighted by the former Pakistani players Rashid Latif and Basit Ali in 1994 tour of South Africa and Zimbabwe when they accused their skipper Salim Malik and other players of match fixing.

Latif accused Malik and said that on crucial stages of the matches, Salim Malik brought himself for bowling and placed most of the fielders either on leg side or off side and then started the bowling on either leg stump when the fielders were not placed on the leg side or bowled short and wide on the off side when most of the fielders were put on the leg side. Both Rashid Latif and Basit Ali left the team in the mid of the tour due to the match fixing and flew back Pakistan. Later both faced problems throughout their career as they were never allowed to settle in the national team. Basit had to retire at very early stage of his career.

The other such incident took place when Pakistan was touring England in 1996 under the captaincy of Wasim Akram and Yawar Saeed was the manager. Pakistan won the test series but the one day series was fixed by 5-0 in favour of England. But in the third ODI, Latif again resisted and won the third one day on his own.

Can match fixing claim life of anyone? Yes, of course. We have the prime example of former South African captain Hansie Cronje when he admitted the match fixing allegations, he was punished and served life time ban. Later, he lost his life through plane crash and the mystery behind the plane crash is still unanswered.

The second example we can say is the incident of former Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer, who was found dead in his hotel room after the unexpected and shameful defeat of Pakistan cricket team against Ireland in 2007 World Cup in West Indies. The case was closed by the authorities as they declared that the Pakistani coach had committed suicide over the shameful defeat of his team in the World Cup. Incidentally, Bob Woolmer was the coach of South Africa when Hansie Cronje was the captain of the team in the 1999 World Cup.

The mafia of match fixers and under world threatened the players of kidnapping of their family members and they forced them to do what they have been ordered. One such incident was happened with great Pakistani fast bowler Wasim Akram when his father was kidnapped by two bookies in Lahore named Raja and Jojo and both were arrested and presented in front of the High Court Judge Malik Qayyum who was holding inquiry of match fixing at that time.

These syndicates contacted the players as journalists or agents of the firm or any charitable institutions which don’t even exist. They have strong hold within the team as most of the senior players are on their panel and they treated the new players as the dogsbodies, especially in Pakistan. The culture in Pakistan team clearly reflect that senior players do nothing about mentoring young players but instead they worked on their personal agendas on how to create rift in the team, how to change captain of the team and obviously focused on match fixing and spot fixing.

The recent example of these incidents is young sensation in cricket world Mohammad Aamer, who is just 18 years old and has been forced to do spot fixing by his senior teammates including his skipper Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Kamran Akmal as they all are part of the match fixing mafia.

Players who resist against these mafias forced to leave the team and one such example is former Pakistan captain Younus Khan who still looks to find his place in the team as he resisted when Pakistan was touring Sri Lanka in 2009 and he complained to the team manager Yawar Saeed about the presence of some Indian bookies on team’s hotel.