The 2010 4th test match at Lord’s between Pakistan and England was very indicative of the wider corruption of sport.
In August of 2010, Pakistan played England at Lord’s Cricket Ground in the 4th test match. At the end of the five days of the match, England won the 4th test by an innings and 225 runs. On the third day of the test match however, the British newspaper News of the World published an article alleging that sport agent Mazhar Majeed had been involved in spot-fixing, when a specific aspect of a game, not the result, is fixed, when people have betted on that aspect. Undercover reporters had supposedly bribed Majeed with £150,000 for information about two of Pakistan’s National team’s bowlers, Mohammed Asif and Mohammed Amir, about them deliberately delivering no balls at specific points of the game, which gamblers would bet on to make money, with inside information. The undercover reporters also captured a video of him counting the bribe money, confessing the predicted times of no balls.
In fact, the captain Salman Butt of the Pakistan team had also been involved in the spot-fixing, and the three players, and agent Majeed, with whom they had some connection, were arrested. On 1 November 2011, Asif, Amir and Butt, were all given prison sentences ranging from 6 to 30 months, and on 3rd November Majeed was given 32 months for ‘conspiracy to make corrupt payments’.
However, what is more important is what came out of the trial. Butt revealed text messages, during the trial, in which Majeed asks to intentionally lose wickets at the previous year’s T20 World Cup and score no balls at certain points in the 4th test match against England. Majeed also suggested in a tape played in court that Pakistan wasn’t the only cricket team in which spot-fixing occurred, claiming 'The Australians, they are the biggest (at match-fixing)'. This led to other teams being suspected and a wider fallout as a result, with over 80 matches being investigated as a result of this scandal. Australia's victory over Pakistan was on the list of investigated matches, however was later cleared due to a lack of evidence.
In conclusion, this one scandal from the one test match had a much bigger consequence than is on the surface. It not only led to multiple other teams being suspected of spot-fixing, but it also shined a light on a wider problem in sport; the betting industry and how certain matches can be fixed in order for some to make a big profit, uncovering the rife nature of corruption in sport.
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