London: Mazher Mahmood, the undercover News of the World journalist who blew the whistle on spot-fixing last year, has revealed that he received a tip-off from inside the Pakistan camp. Speaking under oath in court, Mahmood refused to name the informant but said it was a former member of the Pakistan cricket management team.
Mahmood received the tip-off in January 2010. That alarm put into motion an eight-month operation which culminated in Mahmood going undercover in last summer and infiltrated a circle of corrupt cricketers. Continue reading below
According to The Cricketer, the International Cricket Council (ICC) had also been notified about illegal operations within the Pakistan team at the same time as Mahmood had, and that the NOTW sting emerged while cricket’s governing body was investigating the claims.
Mahmood, known as the 'Fake Sheikh', admitted that he received a download of SMSs from Majeed’s Blackberry phone – which provided evidence of cheating. Mahmood denied charges of illegal phone hacking and maintained that he had obtained the material from Majeed’s phone in a legal manner. Incidentally, the row over phone-hacking by journalists has led to the closure of NOTW, and wider questions about press regulation, media ownership, the police, and relationships between politicians and journalists.
In his opening speech, Aftab Jafferjee, QC, prosecuting, commended the efforts of he the defunct newspaper’s success in exposing the fixing racket. "It was due to the efforts of a journalist with the News of the World that this pernicious and criminal activity was exposed," he said. "Whatever views one might hold about that publication in light of relatively recent developments, this trial and the role of investigative journalism in this case … was to expose matters of national and international concern.
"Were this investigation not to have been permitted, this activity of fixing would almost certainly have continued – unabated and unaccountable – and beyond the reach of the law."
Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif are due to appear in a UK court on Wednesday and Thursday to receive their sentences.
