The cricket playboys
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Salman Butt, the Pakistan cricket captain and one of three players suspended by the ICC over spot-fixing allegations, was seen relaxing at the wheel of a £130,000 sports car belonging to the man at the centre of the scandal.
Butt sits in the driver's seat of the Aston Martin DB9 belonging to Mazhar Majeed – the millionaire agent to Pakistan's cricketers – who crouches in the back as wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal sits in the passenger seat.
Majeed talks to the players in the car before getting out to make a phone call in private.
He then takes a seat on a wall outside the hotel as he speaks with Butt. Majeed and Butt face each other as they speak before teammate Akmal joins to listen to the conversation.
The photos emerged as investigators revealed that Majeed ran up a four-figure bill on his mobile phone in the days leading up to Pakistan's Test series against England.
Calls to suspected bookmakers and their associates in Dubai and the Far East were made from mobile phones seized by police, officials believe.
Chat: Butt and Majeed outside the team hotel in July
Several calls are said to have been made in the days leading up to last week's Lord's Test between Pakistan and England, which is at the centre of four separate match-fixing and money laundering inquiries.
Investigators say there was intense telephone usage, running into several thousand pounds, by Majeed in the days surrounding major matches by the team over a two-year period – fuelling fears that other Tests may be implicated.
They said that during August, when Pakistan played four matches against England, British-born Majeed, 35, ran up a 'substantial four-digit' bill on a mobile number that had hardly been used in the nine months since a large number of calls were made at the time of the team's controversial tour of Australia.
News of the enquiries emerged as police in Pakistan carried out raids in Faisalabad where a relative of Majeed was reported to have been arrested.
More than a dozen police officers in the city are said to be implicated and police spokesman Rana Mohammad Akran said computers had been seized and links with cricket gambling established to Dubai and the UK.
The three players implicated in the scandal – Butt, 25, and bowlers Mohammad Asif, 27, and Mohammad Aamer, 18 – were questioned separately under caution by Scotland Yard detectives in London yesterday. They were released without charge and without condition.
Their mobiles and laptop computers were taken by police in the aftermath of allegations that three no-balls were bowled at pre-determined points on the first two days of the match.
Pakistani cricketer Mohammad Aamer arrives at Kilburn police station to face questioning by police. Along with Test captain Salman Butt (below), he was later released without charge or conditions
Pakistani cricketer Mohammad Aamer arrives at Kilburn police station to face questioning by police. Along with Test captain Salman Butt (below), he was later released without charge or conditions
Pakistan cricketer Salman Butt (R) leaves Kilburn Police Station in London September 3, 2010
The Daily Mail revealed yesterday that marked notes paid by undercover reporters working for the News of the World as part of the sting are believed to have been found in Butt's belongings.
Large quantities of cash were also found in rooms in the hotel where the Pakistan team stayed, the Mail has learned, but it is unclear whether they were from the £150,000 allegedly paid to Majeed. In secretly recorded discussions, Majeed, who claimed to have set up Swiss bank accounts to pay fees to players, boasted how money was laundered through a football club he owned.
Majeed, who was arrested and bailed by police, has also been questioned along with his wife Sheliza Manji, 35, and a 49-year-old Londoner by Customs officials investigating whether more than £20million has been 'washed' through Croydon Athletic Football Club.
The cricketing authorities are braced for further revelations this weekend involving other matches.
The three players engulfed in the scandal insist they are innocent but have been suspended from all matches by the International Cricket Council, the sport's governing body.
Pakistan's High Commissioner in London has attacked the ICC over its actions, accusing it of 'just playing to the public gallery'.
Wajid Hasan said: 'I met the cricketers for two hours, cross-questioned them, got to the bottom of it and concluded that they were innocent. The ICC had no business to take this action.'
Labels: Players
posted @ 1:30 PM,
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