London: The bookie arrested by Scotland Yard for alleged ‘spot-fixing’ in the ongoing England-Pakistan Lord’s Test claims to have links with bookmakers in India as well.

Mazhar Majeed, 35, told an undercover reporter of a Britsh tabloid: “There are no major activities, when the Indian market is not open.”

Pakistan captain Salman Butt, pace duo of Mohammed Asif and Mohammad Aamer and four other players were questioned by the Scotland Yard detectives after the bookie, in the video of the sting operation, claimed that the team bowled no balls for money during the match.

In the same recording, Majeed claims to know bookmakers in India as well.

“....in terms of results, depending on who we are playing, sometimes it can be £300,000. The max it can be is £450,000. You can speak to any bookie in India and they will tell you about this information and how much they’ll pay. If you had the information and they knew that it was coming from the source they’d pay you that money themselves,” he is quoted as saying.

“I deal with an Indian party. They pay me for the information.”

In one conversation, the tabloid reported that “to hammer home the amounts of money our man could win, Majeed called an Indian bookie he regularly deals with and asked him how much he would pay for a definite Oval Test result.

Majeed demanded $1.2 million but the bookie replied, ‘I’ll give you $ 1 million.”

Majeed said a lot of Pakistani cricketers are “just looking for money, women and food” and very few of them have any love for the game.

“You’ll find there’s only a few players who are genuine and who are actually here for the love of the game, and there’s not many believe me. A lot of them are just looking for money, women and food,” Majeed revealed.

“How much they’re getting paid is a joke. I came from a football background and I can see the difference in football and cricket. It’s huge.”

Majeed claimed cheating was not confined to match-fixing alone and that ball tampering had also become regular in the Pakistan team. “I used to go out on the pitch to give the players their drinks. Whenever we couldn’t get a wicket I’d have a lump of Vaseline on my hand. Shake their hand.

“They’d put it on one side of the ball and the ball would suddenly start in-swinging,” he said.

Majeed revealed that he wanted Butt to continue as captain for long as possible.

“I give out the information the night before or morning. What’s going to happen at the end of the fourth day. But now we are not going to do any results for the next two games because we want Butt to be the long term captain,” Majeed stated. (PTI)