Pakistani cricketers admit taking money from Mazhar Majeed

London, Sep 4 : Three Pakistani cricketers — captain Salman Butt and pacers Muhammad Asif and Muhammad Asif — have reportedly admitted before the Scotland Yard inquiry that the British currency recovered from their hotel rooms was given to them by bookie Mazhar Majeed.

According to Geo TV, the players maintained that they knew Mazhar Majeed as an agent and not as a book maker.

The investigation into spot-fixing charges started after the News of the World revealed the players bowled deliberate no-balls in the Lord’s Test match after taking money from a book-maker.

Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) legal advisor Tafazzul Rizvi confirmed that the players had given this statement.

?They denied that this money was given to them for spot-fixing like bowling no-balls etc. The players also showed their written contracts for these sponsorship deals to the police. That is why they were allowed to go without any charge,” Rizvi was quoted as saying by Geo TV.

?The players choose their agents on their own and the board has nothing to do with it,” he said..

?The players have contested the allegation and also volunteered themselves for police investigations,” Rizvi said.

He rubbished the reports that Butt had taken the money from Majeed allegedly to arrange dowry of his sister.

?He does not have to do that,? Rizvi emphatically said.