Soaring Wings

The Three 'Moneymakers'

In a sensational turn to the spot-fixing scam, the three Pakistani cricketers- Salman Butt, Mohammed Aamir and Mohammed Asif-on Friday admitted that they took money from bookie Mazhar Majeed but came out with a bizarre defence that it was for for some sponsorship contracts.

The suspended trio, being grilled by Scotland Yard in London, claimed the money they took from Majeed was on account of sponsorship contracts they had signed with different commercial organisations.

Their admission came on a day the PCB today threatened to sue the International Cricket Council (ICC) if the players are found innocent even as the country’s diplomats struck a discordant note with contradictory statements on the issue.

The players insisted that they did not know that Majeed, working as an agent for them, was also a bookmaker.

According to reports, 50,000 pounds were recovered from the hotel room of Butt.

The three players were suspended by the ICC after a british tabloid claimed that they were involved in spot-fixing. (SS-04/09)

Tainted trio questioned over ‘calls, SMSes, secret accounts’

The three Pakistani cricketers implicated in the ‘spot-fixing’ scandal were questioned about the calls and text messages they exchanged with alleged bookie Mazhar Majeed and their “secret accounts” by the Scotland Yard in London.

The three players at the center of the row — Test captain Salman Butt and pacers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamir — were released without a charge by the Scotland Yard after questioning on Friday.

According to a report in daily, the trio was “questioned by detectives over text messages, phone calls and secret bank accounts linked to alleged match-fixing.”

Aamir spent almost five hours being quizzed by the police and he was reportedly asked about a “message he allegedly sent to Majeed.”

“Shall I do it or not?” was the text message that Aamir allegedly sent Majeed a night before sending down a deliberate no-ball in the Lord’s Test against England last week.

“They were asked about secret accounts in Swiss and British banks, which, according to the News of the World investigation, Mr Majeed said he had set up in their names,” the newspaper reported.

The newspaper said Butt, in whose room cash linked to the betting scam was reportedly found, is being suspected the most.

“It has been reported that 50,000 pounds was found in his room by police but he said the money, some in foreign currency, was to pay a dowry for his sister.”

ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit chief Sir Ronnie Flanagan has already stated that the evidence at hand has made it clear that the players in question “have a really arguable case to answer in our disciplinary arena.”