Tabloid publishes conversations between reporter and fixer Mazhar Majeed

Skeletons continue to tumble out in the spot-fixing saga with British tabloid News of the World revealing details of the conversations between alleged fixer Mazhar Majeed and their undercover reporter during the sting operations.

A report published in the paper said the reporter Mazher Mahmood got the tip-off in January this year when a former member of the Pakistan cricket management team told him that the England versus Pakistan series would be rigged.

He also got Mazhar Majeed's name in January and was told that he was the fixer for the Test series in England.

However, the first meeting between the reporter and Majeed took place at the Park Lane Hilton on August 16, the report said.

"In the plush hotel's Podium restaurant, our team explain they are representing a business group interested in launching a new cricket tournament - and we need Majeed's help to bring in the stars.

"The smooth fixer instantly pounces, boasting about his links to the Pakistan team. He asks if we will put up a 'million dollars' in prize money for the tournament and adds: All the players would be up for that. Then not only will they come to play, they actually come to win," the report said.

The reporter then asked him to have "a word" with the Pakistani players, mentioning the possibility of betting, to which Majeed replied, "They're cool, they're cool".

Asked if two or three players can be for the betting side, Majeed said, "There's more than two or three. Believe me. It's already set up. That's already there."

After the hour-long meeting, Majeed arranged for a second meeting at a restaurant at Bombay Brasserie on August 18, the report claimed.

During the meeting, Majeed opened up more about his deep involvement in match-fixing and called Pakistan captain Salman Butt on his mobile to check possible dates for the proposed tournament.

Later Majeed had a "secret chat" with the reporter in the latter's car, where he spilled the bean on match-fixing.

The report gave a detailed list of conversation that took place between their undercover reporter and Majeed.

During the conversation, Majeed said, "There is very big money" in match-fixing and that he "has been doing it with the Pakistani team for about two and a half years."

Majeed said they have "made masses and masses amounts of money and that he "deals with an Indian party and they pay him for the information."

Majeed also went on to give him examples to explain the reporter about the modus operandi of the whole business of fixing. 

"Say, for example, a bracket would open in India, and it would open for, erm, 30 runs after ten overs, or 33 runs after ten overs. So what the players (crooked batsmen) would do is, for the first three overs, they would score a maximum of 13 or more runs in the first three overs," the report quoted Majeed as saying.

"So the market then expects it to go high because they are scoring at a higher rate. Then the next seven overs they would score 14 (in total, a much lower run rate) or less. So then the people who know the information (betting syndicates) would go low and make a hell of a lot of a killing.

"Then there's a bowling bracket. For example, Mohammed Asif and Mohammed Amir are bowling, yeah? Ten overs. The market opens at ten overs and, let's say 32 runs. OK. So at the sixth over when he (the bowler) does that dead ball (where a bowler starts his run-up and then aborts it) my people know the 8th, 9th and 10th over, they (the bowlers) are going to concede more than 18 runs...," he said.

"Everyone's thinking 'No, they're not' because they're conceding only two or three runs an over - so the last three overs they let it all go and they make a killing," he said.

Majeed said the players give certain "indication to show that if it's on or not. They'll change gloves at a certain point."

He said they "don't do results that often and the last one we did was against Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup which was about two months ago".

Majeed specially said that he has "got six" Pakistani players in the "first team".

Majeed also said they "charge anything between £50,000 and £80,000 per bracket and for results, Twenty20 is about £4,00,000", while for "a Test Match, depending on the situation, can go up to a million pounds."

Majeed then talked about a Test match that he already fixed.

"Let me tell you the last Test we did. It was the second Test against Australia in Sydney. Pakistan, on the last day... Australia had two more wickets left. They had a lead of ten runs, yeah, and Pakistan had all their wickets remaining.

"The odds for Pakistan to lose that match were I think 40-1. We let them get up to 150 in the morning, and then everyone lost their wickets. That one we made 1.3 million (dollars)," Majeed said in the report.

Majeed said "Tests is where the biggest money" and also informed they "are not going to do any results for the next two games (against England) because they want Salman Butt to be captain for long term."

He said "no-balls is easy (to fix), which "could probably get up to £10,000 each. But in terms of results, one-day matches results are about £4,50,000."