Bowler ‘was paid £65,000 to keep him loyal’

Mohammad Asif, 28, received the money at the request of other players in his national side who feared he might be tempted to start working for another crooked gambling syndicate, London’s Southwark Crown Court was told.

It was also alleged in court that Pakistan’s former Test captain Salman Butt, 27, teamed up with another mystery player to organise rigging of parts of games during last summer’s tour of England.

The sensational claims were made by lawyers for agent Mazhar Majeed, 36, who was convicted along with Asif, Butt and bowler Mohammad Amir, 19, of plotting to bowl deliberate no-balls in the Lord’s Test between Pakistan and England in August last year.

Majeed received £150,000 in cash from an undercover reporter from the News of the World as part of an arrangement to rig games, including a promise that Amir and Asif would deliver three no-balls at pre-arranged points in the Lord’s match.

He paid £2,500 of the money to Amir, £10,000 to Butt and £65,000 to Asif, and planned to give them more in the future, the court heard.

Majeed’s barrister Mark Milliken-Smith QC said: “The larger amount was paid in order to ensure that that player remained, as it were, loyal to these people, the players within the dressing room, rather than to others by whom he might be tempted.”

Asif’s lawyer Alexander Milne QC denied the player received any money for the no-ball at Lord’s.

Majeed, a married businessman with three young children, from Croydon, south London, claimed that he only became involved at the request of Butt.

Butt was accused of approaching the agent during the Twenty20 World Cup in England in June 2009 and complaining that less-experienced players were able to buy houses, because they earned money through illegal fixing.

This was allegedly followed by a lunch in January last year during Pakistan’s disastrous tour of Australia, at which Butt and another unnamed Pakistan player told Majeed they wanted to get involved in rigging parts of games.

The following month, Majeed travelled to Pakistan, where he again met Butt and the mysterious cricketer, the court heard.

Mr Milliken-Smith said: “The players indicated they wished to add a couple more players and possibly a further one or two in the future...”

It was agreed that Majeed would act as the middle-man between the players and an Indian bookmaker known as Sanjay, whom he met shortly afterwards in a hotel in London’s Park Lane.

Mr Milliken-Smith said Sanjay regularly phoned the agent during Pakistan’s tour of England asking him to arrange for the cricketers to fix “brackets”, a set period of a game on which punters bet on specific match results.

Mr Milliken-Smith said the agent did not recruit any of the Pakistan cricketers to fixing. “He was, we respectfully submit, yes, the arranger for the players. He was not the corrupter,” he said.

Butt’s barrister, Ali Bajwa QC, strongly denied the former captain initiated the fixing scam.

Butt missed the birth of his second son in Pakistan yesterday as he and former world number two Test bowler Asif were found guilty by a jury of conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to accept corrupt payments.

Amir, once tipped to become one of the all-time great fast bowlers, admitted the same charges at a pre-trial hearing in September.

It can now be reported that Majeed also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to make corrupt payments after the judge lifted reporting restrictions.

The International Cricket Council imposed five-year bans on all three cricketers in February.

Mr Milne said Asif had enjoyed money, fame, glamour and popularity in Pakistan.

Henry Blaxland QC, mitigating for Amir, quoted a statement to the court in which the young cricketer said he was not motivated by money but found himself trapped by his own stupidity.

Aftab Jafferjee QC, prosecuting, applied for a compensation order to repay the £150,000 that a journalist gave Majeed.

Sentencing is due to take place today.