The fourth Test between England and Pakistan at Lord's is in the centre of a police investigation into spot-fixing, after a 35-year-old man was arrested following allegedly being caught offering to bribe Pakistan's bowlers to bowl no-balls on demand.

According to a report within the Information from the World, Mazher Majeed accepted £150,000 to arrange a fix involving Pakistan's new-ball bowlers, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif, whom he allegedly asked to bowl no-balls at particular moments of the match. The paper also alleges that the group captain, Salman Butt, and also the wicketkeeper, Kamran Akmal, are involved, together with three other unnamed cricketers.

Cricinfo understands from a source near to the investigation that a sum of £25,000 was found within the room of 1 from the Pakistan players, with further sums of £3000-4000 discovered on two other players. The source also confirmed that Mazher was recognized towards the group, but in an informal capacity, and added that they fully expected to resume the Lord's Check on Sunday morning.

In a video secretly recorded during the NOTW investigation, a man alleged to be Mazher is clearly heard predicting that Amir would bowl the first over of the England innings, and that he would deliver a no-ball from the very first ball from the third over - which as Cricinfo's ball-by-ball commentary noted: "was an enormous no-ball, good half a metre more than the line." The guy also appeared to correctly predict a no-ball in the sixth ball of the tenth more than, bowled this time by Asif.

A Scotland Yard spokeman mentioned: "Following info received in the Information from the Globe we have today [Saturday, August 28] arrested a 35-year old guy on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud bookmakers."

Pakistan's team manager Yawar Saeed confirmed to Sky News that the allegations were being investigated, with police turning up at the team hotel in Swiss Cottage at 7.30pm, shortly after the near of an eventful 3rd day of the Lord's Test, in which Pakistan had been left on the brink of defeat after losing 14 wickets within the day.

Based on Sky News reporters outside the group hotel, police officers had been seen leaving the creating with two bags at around 11pm, although an unidentified man in a Pakistan training top was understood to have been taken away in an unmarked police car from the back from the building, although the team manager denied that any arrests had been made within the squad.

Even allowing for their disastrous on-field performance, Pakistan left Lord's with unusual haste following the 3rd day's play, with the group bus departing barely 20 minutes following the near of play, prior to any member from the squad had taken part in the mandatory post-match press conference.

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Investigators will focus on the currency notes handed over by the News Of The World (NOTW) to Mazhar Majeed as they look for evidence of spot fixing in the Lord's Test involving Pakistani cricketers. Majeed was arrested by Scotland Yard on Saturday night and the investigators will try and determine if the currency notes bear resemblance to those found in the hotel rooms of several Pakistani players.


The NOTW claimed Majeed was paid £150,000 to arrange a fix involving Pakistan's new-ball bowlers, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif, whom he allegedly asked to bowl no-balls at specific moments of the match. It also alleged that Salman Butt and Kamran Akmal, the captain and vice-captain respectively, were the kingpins in the deal, which involved a total of seven players.

Butt sidestepped the issue at the post-match press conference on Sunday, saying investigations were on. However, a source familiar with such investigations said he would be hard pressed to explain the currency notes allegedly found in his hotel room if they matched those given to Majeed by NOTW.

"If the notes are the same it would be something serious. It would be direct evidence linking him to what has been claimed by [Majeed]," the source said.

The most serious aspect of the issue, the source said, was Butt's involvement, and Majeed's claim that he knew Butt's bowling plan. "The fact that specific overs are to be bowled by specific bowlers and that they get to bowl those overs…then the specific ball as suggested is the kind of ball they offered are issues that raise considerable concern ," the source said.

What will follow now, the source said, is intensive interrogation by Scotland Yard. "I don't think they will make an arrest unless they have some very credible evidence linking the player(s) to this," he said.

The United Kingdom has a specific law under the Gambling Act that criminalises any offence involving cheating in sport and brings such cases immediately under police jurisdiction.

Butt was handed the Test captaincy in a crisis situation last July after Shahid Afridi's sudden retirement from the five-day game following the Lord's Test against Australia. Butt immediately led Pakistan to a thrilling victory over Australia at Headingley, their first in 15 years. A week ago at The Oval, he was once again victorious when Pakistan beat England in another close finish. The weekend's developments, however, have cast a cloud over those achievements.

Less than a day after the News of the World sent Pakistan cricket heading towards another crisis more skeletons were tumbling out of the closet as it emerged that "several" of Pakistan's players have been monitored by the ICC's Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) for some time. Cricinfo understands that Salman Butt and Kamran Akmal are part of a group of players the watchdog has been keeping a close eye on.
Added to this, influential sources close to the Pakistan team have said Mazhar Majeed, the man at the centre of the spot-fixing scandal that erupted at Lord's, has also been on the ACSU watchlist but investigations were hindered because he is an agent. "He has been under the scanner for some time. But he is the commercial agent to various players," said the source. "They are their official player agents who are doing all these endorsements. In that case nobody can question their presence."
And the source added: "There are a number of Pakistan players that have been under the ACSU scanner for a while now." He pointed out that the exercise was not only a reaction to Pakistan's ignominious tour of Australia earlier this year where they lost every match, including the controversial second Test at Sydney. At one stage Australia were just 49 ahead with two wickets ahead, but the last two wickets extended the advantage to 176 then Pakistan floundered badly and raised more than a few eyebrows through the manner in which they folded.
Kamran had also managed to drop four catches along with a missed run-out opportunity during Australia's second innings, and during the post-tour inquiry committee set up by the PCB Inthikab Alam and Aaqib Javed, the head coach and the assistant coach on the tour, raised doubts over Kamran's gloverwork. That lead to suspicions of match-fixing and Lord Paul Condon, the former head of the ACSU, said that series was being investigated.
"We are satisfied that that was a totally dysfunctional tour from a Pakistani point of view, and that dysfunctionality in the dressing room led to players not performing well, and maybe making them potentially underperform deliberately," Condon told Cricinfo before he retired. "What we still need to establish is whether that was because rival camps wanted to do down captains or potential captains, or whether it was something more serious, doing it for a financial fix."
As disclosed by the NOTW, Majeed allegedly said that Sydney was the last instance where he was involved in fixing a match. "Let me tell you the last Test we did. It was the second Test against Australia in Sydney," he told the undercover reporter. "Australia had two more wickets left. They had a lead of 10 runs, yeah. And Pakistan had all their wickets remaining. The odds for Pakistan to lose that match, for Australia to win that match, were I think 40 to 1.
"We let them get up to 150 then everyone lost their wickets," Majeed revealed. ''That one we made £1.3 [million]. But that's what I mean, you can get up to a million. Tests is where the biggest money is because those situations arise.''

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