2010 Pakistan cricket spot-fixing controversy

The Pakistan cricket spot-fixing scandal of 2010 centres on certain members of Pakistan's national cricket team being convicted of taking bribes from a bookmaker, Mazhar Majeed, to under-perform deliberately at certain times in a Test match at Lord's, London, in 2010.

Undercover reporters from News of the World secretly videotaped Mazhar Majeed accepting money and informing the reporters that fast bowlers Asif and Amir would deliberately bowl no balls at specific points in an over. This information could be used by gamblers to place bets with inside information (i.e. spot-fixing). In response to these allegations, Scotland Yard arrested Majeed on the charge of match fixing. The International Cricket Council (ICC) banned three players—Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir—for terms of between 5 and 10 years. In November 2011, Butt and Asif were found guilty by a London court on criminal charges relating to spot-fixing. Amir and Majeed had entered guilty pleas on the same charges. All four were given prison sentences, ranging from six months to 32 months.

In July 2010, the ICC Anti Corruption and Security Unit served notices to two unnamed players seeking information into allegations of spot and match fixing. These notices were sent out to the players following England's first 2010 Test Match against Pakistan, at Nottingham. The notices informed the players that the ACSU was seeking certain information and gave the pair 14 days to respond.

In August 2010, reporters from News of the World established contact with Mazhar Majeed, a sports agent who was suspected of involvement in match-fixing. In the video posted by News of the World, Majeed, counting out the bribe money, predicted that Amir would be bowling the third over in the fourth test at Lord's, and that the first ball of the over would be a no-ball delivery. Amir did bowl the third over, and on his first delivery from the over, bowled a no-ball delivery. Commentary described the delivery as an "enormous no-ball, good half a metre over the line". Majeed also predicted that the sixth delivery of the tenth over would be a no-ball, and that ball, delivered by Asif, was also a no-ball delivery.

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