LONDON : A sports agent accused of taking bribes to fix matches said Pakistan's best known former players were involved in betting scams and that Australian cricketers were "the biggest" culprits, a London court heard on Monday. Agent Mazhar Majeed, 36, told an undercover journalist match-fixing had been going on "for centuries" and named celebrated former Pakistan fast-bowlers Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis as alleged participants, the court heard. Prosecutors allege that Majeed conspired with Pakistan's former Test captain Salman Butt, 27, and fast bowlers Mohammad Asif, 28, and Mohammad Amir, 19, 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. The jury at Southwark Crown Court was played covert recordings of meetings between the agent and former News of the World journalist Mazher Mahmood, who was posing as a rich Indian businessman organising a proposed cricket tournament in the United Arab Emirates. Majeed met Mahmood at a west London restaurant on Aug. 18 last year the first day of Pakistan's Oval Test against England and, after the meal, discussed match-fixing in the undercover reporter's car, the court was told."It's been happening for centuries. It's been happening for years. Wasim, Waqar, Ijaz Ahmed, Moin Khan they all did it, Majeed said. (REUTERS)
