The Pakistan cricket spot-fixing controversy centres on allegations that members of Pakistan's Cricket team took bribes from a bookmaker, Mazhar Majeed, to deliberately under-perform at certain times in the 4th Test match at Lord's Cricket Ground, London, in 2010.
Undercover reporters from News of the World, led by Mazher Mahmood, secretly video-taped 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 (a process known as spot-fixing).[1] 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 andMohammad 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.[2]
