A cricket agent asked for $1.2 million (£768,000) to arrange for Pakistan to throw a Test match against England, a court heard on Tuesday.
Match-fixing trial watches covertly-filmed video
A cricket agent asked for $1.2 million (£768,000) to arrange for Pakistan to throw a Test match against England, a court heard on Tuesday.
Mazhar Majeed, 36, was secretly recorded discussing deliberately losing last summer's game at The Oval with a mysterious contact in India, London's Southwark Crown Court was told.
He allegedly claimed it was "not a problem" to fix the match result and referred to the number of players working with him, saying: "Boss, you know how many I've got, you know that they do it."
Majeed called his Indian contact on the morning of August 21 last year, the final day of the Oval Test, in the presence of former News of the World undercover reporter Mazher Mahmood, the court heard.
The agent told the unnamed man: "You know what we spoke about last night, what offer can you give me for today's game? Tell me, just give me a figure now, we haven't got long.
"There's a possibility, I'm telling you that now, but they're talking at least 1.2 (million dollars - £768,000) - at least."
Majeed went on: "Boss, you know how many I've got, you know that they do it. So of course that's not a problem. But you just give me the figure and I'm going to get back to you."
The Indian contact replied: "I give you one (million dollars). One I give you, but has to be a definite game score."
After the call, Majeed told the journalist: "There's big, big money in results, I tell you, you can see that."
The prosecution alleges that the agent was discussing the possibility of Pakistan deliberately losing the game.
In the event Pakistan beat England by four wickets to secure a memorable Test victory at the Oval in south London that day.
Prosecutors allege that Majeed, from Croydon, conspired with Pakistan's former Test captain, Salman Butt, 27, and fast bowlers Mohammad Asif, 28, and Mohammad Amir, 19, to fix parts of the Lord's Test between England and Pakistan last August.
Butt and Asif, who are standing trial, deny conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to accept corrupt payments.
Majeed claimed that he channelled the money he received from match-fixing through the football club he owned, Croydon Athletic, and had opened Swiss bank accounts for his Pakistan players, the court heard.
He told Mahmood: "I have the football club, and I move a lot of it through. The only reason I bought a football club is to move cash."
On August 25 last year, the day before the start of the final Test match of the England-Pakistan series at Lord's in north London, Majeed met the journalist again at the Copthorne Tara hotel off Kensington High Street in London.
Video
The jury was shown a covertly-filmed video of Mr Mahmood handing £140,000 in £50 notes to the agent, who counted out the money on a table in front of him.
Majeed claimed at the meeting that Twenty20 games were the "easiest" to fix and boasted that he and his associates would make "a hell of a lot of money" in the upcoming one-day and Twenty20 series between England and Pakistan, the court heard.
He also alleged that many Pakistan players wanted Butt to replace Shahid Afridi as captain of their Twenty-20 and one-day sides, and were happy to throw matches deliberately in order to achieve this.
"A lot of the boys, they want to f*** up Afridi because he's trying to f*** up things for them, and he's the captain of the Twenty20 and one-day," the agent claimed. "They all want Butt to be captain... They want to lose anyway."
Majeed also told the undercover reporter on the video shown to the jury: "The timing you've come into is perfect because the one-days and the Twenty20s are about to start.
"We're going to be making a hell of a lot of money in the Twenty20s and the one-days...
"Say for example Twenty20. I will tell you the bowlers, how many minimum runs they are going to concede, which is much more than usual. They are going to concede those runs.
"With the batsmen I'm going to tell you how many, say for the example the two opening batsmen Salman and Kamran (Akmal) for example, you've only got 20 overs, they're going to waste two overs, three overs ... The Twenty20s are the easiest."
The agent promised the reporter that Amir and Asif would deliver three no-balls at specific points in the Lord's Test, the court heard.
He was filmed on hidden cameras telling Mahmood: "After you see these three, you will know it's no coincidence...
"You're going to see these three things happen. Then you're going to see that I'm talking 100% and I'm serious as well as you're serious."
Urging the journalist to bet on the no-balls, the agent claimed: "My guy in India, he makes £40,000, £50,000 each ball."
Majeed even promised to refund Mahmood's money if the promised no-balls did not transpire.
"If they don't get it, I will drop you your money straight back, OK. The money's not a big deal to me. It's about a relationship in the long term, making money," he said.
Majeed claimed to the journalist that he signed footballer Rio Ferdinand's autobiography for £12million and was involved in the funding and production of a Golden Globe-winning and Oscar-nominated film called Paradise Now, the court heard.
Boast
He also alleged that "everyone knew" Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari killed his wife, Benazir Bhutto, the jury was told.
The agent allegedly went on to boast that he had personally helped cricketers to tamper with balls by going onto the pitch and shaking their hands with Vaseline concealed in his palm.
The jury was told that he said to the undercover reporter: "These are the little secrets that nobody really knows."
Majeed also accused every Indian and Pakistani cricketer of lying about their ages by "three years at least", the court heard.
Ali Bajwa QC, defending Butt, said the agent engaged in a "considerable amount of name dropping" during his meetings with Mahmood.
Majeed claimed he could recruit former Pakistan cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan for a cricket tournament the undercover journalist pretended to be planning, the court heard.
He said: "I will sit down with him the day after tomorrow and he will say yes to you."
The agent told the reporter he knew ex-Pakistan fast-bowler Waqar Younis and the late England cricketer-turned-Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer "very well", and was also acquainted with former Ireland international Liam Brady, who is now Arsenal FC's head of youth development.
Majeed also said he had negotiated $6m (£3.84million) for the memoirs of recently-retired Pakistan fast-bowler Shoaib Akhtar, the court heard.
