Pakistan Spot-Fixing Scandal at Lord's

Pakistan cricket arrived at Lord's for the fourth Test of August 2010 with its global isolation already entrenched. The terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore in March 2009 had ended international cricket on Pakistani soil for the foreseeable future, and the side had been touring as a permanent away team for over a year. Salman Butt, a stylish opening batsman, had been appointed Test captain only weeks earlier, succeeding Shahid Afridi, who had retired from Tests after a single match. Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, the two opening fast bowlers, were among the most talented seam attacks in world cricket — Amir, at 18, was being talked about as the natural successor to Wasim Akram.

The shadow of corruption had hung over Pakistan cricket for over a decade. Justice Malik Qayyum's 2000 inquiry had named several senior players, including Salim Malik (banned for life) and Ata-ur-Rehman, while making findings of suspicion against Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Inzamam-ul-Haq and others. Subsequent ICC anti-corruption investigations had repeatedly raised concerns about the susceptibility of Pakistan players to approaches by South Asian betting syndicates, but no current player had been convicted in the decade since.

Mazhar Majeed, a London-based property developer who had become an informal player-agent for several Pakistan internationals, had spent the summer of 2010 making increasingly ambitious claims to journalists from the News of the World about his ability to control passages of play. His contact at the paper, the investigative reporter Mazher Mahmood — known professionally as the "Fake Sheikh" — had been recording every conversation.

On 25 August 2010, the eve of the fourth Test, Mazher Mahmood met Majeed at a London hotel, posing as the representative of a Far Eastern betting syndicate. Mahmood paid Majeed £150,000 in cash. Majeed counted the money and, on hidden camera, predicted the precise sequence of three no-balls he could arrange Pakistan bowlers to deliver in the upcoming Test:

— Mohammad Amir would bowl a no-ball as the first delivery of the third over of England's first innings. — Mohammad Asif would bowl a no-ball as the sixth delivery of the tenth over. — Amir would bowl a no-ball as the third delivery of his next over.

Majeed also identified Salman Butt as the captain who had agreed the arrangement and, by his account, several other Pakistan players including wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal as participants in different forms of fixing. The News of the World decided not to alert the ICC's Anti-Corruption and Security Unit ahead of the match, judging that the value of the story depended on the no-balls actually being delivered.

The Test began the following morning. Amir bowled the third over. The first ball was a no-ball — and not a marginal one, but a foot-fault so blatant that television commentators joked about it on air. Asif's tenth-over no-ball followed, equally exaggerated. Amir's third no-ball came in his next over almost exactly as Majeed had predicted. By the close of play on Day 1, the News of the World had its story.

In August 2010, the now-defunct tabloid News of the World published undercover footage showing agent Mazhar Majeed accepting £150,000 from an undercover reporter and accurately predicting that Pakistani bowlers would deliver no-balls at specific moments during the Lord's Test against England. The predicted no-balls were bowled by Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif at exactly the times Majeed had specified.

The revelation was devastating. Cricket had been rocked by match-fixing scandals before, but the spot-fixing at Lord's — the "Home of Cricket" — during a Test match, captured on film with irrefutable evidence, was a new low. Captain Salman Butt, Amir (then just 18), and Asif were all arrested by the Metropolitan Police. The trio was subsequently found guilty at Southwark Crown Court and served prison sentences. The ICC also imposed bans of varying lengths.

The scandal raised profound questions about the vulnerability of cricket to fixing, the role of betting markets (particularly in the subcontinent), and the pressure on poorly-paid Pakistani cricketers to accept payments from bookmakers. The PCB's handling of the aftermath was criticized, with accusations that the system that allowed fixing to flourish had not been adequately addressed. The Lord's scandal accelerated the ICC's anti-corruption efforts and led to more stringent education and surveillance programs for all international cricketers.

“These are the boys you've been looking for. They are the new fixes.”

“It was the worst kept secret. The first ball of the third over will be a no-ball, mark my words.”

“These offences, regardless of pleas, are so serious that only a sentence of imprisonment will suffice.”

“I want to apologise to all those who have been let down. I am ashamed.”

“Cricket cannot be played by people who do not believe in its integrity.”

The ICC's response was unusually swift. Within a week of the News of the World story it had provisionally suspended all three players, and in February 2011 a tribunal sitting in Doha imposed bans of ten years (Butt, with five suspended), seven years (Asif, with two suspended), and five years (Amir). The Doha tribunal explicitly rejected Butt's defence that the no-balls had been coincidence and accepted the prosecution case that the captain had recruited the bowlers and acted as the conduit to Majeed.

The criminal trial in London produced even more serious consequences. Justice Cooke at Southwark Crown Court sentenced Butt to two and a half years' imprisonment, Asif to one year, Amir to six months in a young offenders' institution, and Majeed to two years and eight months. The judge described the offences as a "betrayal" of cricket and rejected the argument that no-balls were "victimless," noting that the integrity of every match in which the players had participated was now in doubt. The three players became the first international cricketers in history to be jailed for spot-fixing.

Mohammad Amir's age — he was 18 when the offences were committed — and his guilty plea in court (he was the only one of the three to plead guilty) created a long-running debate over whether he had been corrupted by Butt and Majeed rather than acting as a free agent. The ICC permitted him to return to domestic cricket six months before his ban formally expired, and he played international cricket again from January 2016. Asif maintained his innocence throughout, never returned to international cricket, and saw his ban expire in 2017 with little public sympathy. Butt also maintained his innocence on appeal but eventually accepted his guilt in 2017 and returned briefly to Pakistan domestic cricket.