Back then, the Lord’s Test match between England and Pakistan came under the unwanted shadow of spot-fixing after News of the World, a British tabloid, ran a sting operation which exposed Mazhar Majeed, a Pakistan player agent claiming to have given money to Pakistani bowlers for bowling no balls on demand. Then the ban followed on the trio. Meanwhile, the trio felt that it was Shahid Afridi, who gave the news to them.
Meanwhile, Shahid Afridi insisted that he wasn’t the person behind the information, which was leaked to the news agency. He quoted that it was one of his friends, who revealed the information and later, the news agency carried a sting operation, which saw them being Jailed.
The then skipper Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif were all convicted of taking bribes from Mazhar Majeed, to underperform at Lord’s. It was in 2011, a London court found the three guilty and handed them bans.
“These players (Salman Butt, Muhammad Asif and Muhammad Aamir) still think that Lala (Afridi) blew the whistle about them to the newspaper that is not true. It was one of my friends in England who passed on the information without informing me and even after that the newspaper carried out its own investigation and sting operation to confirm and trap the players,” Afridi said on a news channel.
Abdul Razzaq kept on telling me:
Further, he went on to add saying that his former teammate Abdul Razzaq has kept on saying him that there is something wrong with Salman Butt and the other players. He also insisted that Razzaq continuously feeling that there are players, who are fixing the game.
“Razzaq kept on telling me after one match against Sri Lanka that he had doubts about Salman Butt but I did not believe him at that time. I said they are like our younger brothers. Later on as fate would have it a damaged mobile which went to a repair shop and whose owner knew my friend in England revealed messages that surprised me and made me suspect that these players were indeed spot-fixing matches,” he said.
I informed management:
Shahid Afridi revealed that he informed the Pakistan team management regarding the same, as soon as he got aware of it. Afridi didn’t receive the comments, which he expected from the management, thus, left the captaincy in Test format.
“It was disappointing for me. My first job was to inform the management, I did that they said ‘beta kya kar sakta hai ab (son, what we can do now)’. That is also why I gave up Test cricket and the captaincy and returned home.”
All in all, it is one of those darkest days for Pakistan, which will never be forgotten by the fans. Mohammed Amir returned to the fold while Butt and Asif are trying hard to break into the International cricket.