Mysterious Indian offered Mazhar Majeed $1.2m to lose Oval Test, court hears

A mysterious Indian contact offered Pakistan cricket agent Mazhar Majeed $1.2 million to arrange for Pakistan to throw a Test match against England, a court in London heard Tuesday.

Majeed, 36, was secretly recorded by undercover reporter of the now defunct The News of the World, Mazher Mahmood, discussing to lose last summer's game at the Oval with a shadowy contact in India, London's Southwark Crown Court was told.

Majeed called his Indian contact on the morning of August 21 last year, the final day of the Oval Test, in the presence of Mahmood, the Daily Mail reported.

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."

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 says the agent was discussing the possibility of Pakistan deliberately throwing the game. Pakistan had beaten England by four wickets to secure a memorable Test victory at the Oval in south London that day.

Majeed, from south London, along with with Pakistan's former Test captain Salman Butt, 27, and fast bowlers Mohammad Asif, 28, and Mohammad Amir, 19, has been accused 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.