LAHORE: One-day skipper Shahid Afridi, team coach Waqar Younis and former security manager of Pakistan team Major (retd) Khawaja Najam Javed, in their startling eye witness accounts to the ICC’s Code of Conduct Commission probing the spot-fixing case, have admitted that ‘bookie’ Mazhar Majeed had kept constant contact with the three ‘tainted’ Pakistan players during the last England tour in August and even stayed at the team’s hotel despite several warnings.

But while the eye-opening statements by the three officials further spoil the case of the three ‘tainted’ players Salman Butt, Mohammad Aamir and Mohammad Asif, they also highlight the incompetence and laxity on part of the ICC’s Anti-corruption Unit and the Pakistan Cricket Board in the spot-fixing scam which was exposed by British tabloid News of the World during the Lord’s Test last summer.

The statements from the three officials confirm ‘bookie’ Mazhar Majeed’s frequent visits to the team hotel to meet the suspect players and that he continued meeting the players in and outside the hotel despite several warnings from the security manager Major Najam.

The question that arises here is: why did Waqar or Major Najam  not bring the suspect activities of Mazhar and his brother Azhar Majeed to the notice of either the ICC’s Anti-corruption Unit or the PCB?

It is also amazing how the ICC Anti-corruption Unit, whose agents are always deployed at the team hotel and other places during any international series, failed to observe any of the ‘shady’ moves from the Majeed brothers.

The witness statements, obtained by Dawn recently, hugely dent any hopes of the ‘tainted’ trio, particularly Salman Butt, of defending themselves at the ICC hearing which is set for Jan 6, 2011.

The statements also claim that Mazhar had definite contacts with wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal apart from the three tainted players.

Major Najam, who was recently removed from his job after the series against South Africa in the UAE, claims in his statement: “During the Scotland Yard search of the players’ rooms at the team hotel, two police officers found cash in a bag and a small suitcase which they seized. Most of the cash was in the suitcase. I asked the police officers to put on record the amount of money they had confiscated and they did so immediately. I have retained that note and attached a copy of it which reads as follows: Room No. 714 — 24,300 UAE Dirhams, 29,787 Pound Sterlings, 12,617 US dollars, 10 Australian dollars, 26,015 Pakistani Rupees, 350 Canadian dollars and 440 South African Rands.”

Najam’s statement adds: “While we were there, the police officers asked Salman Butt why he had so much cash in his room and Mr Butt stated, ‘It’s for my two sisters, they are getting married, it’s for their dowry’.

The security manager further says that during the search of Mohammad Asif’s room, the bowler remained quite calm but the other pacer, Mohammad Aamir looked very, very upset.

“I offered them support and told them to cooperate with the police. From Mohammad Aamir’s room, a Tag Heuer mobile phone and possibly other mobile phones, 5,000 pounds in cash, a few hundred US dollars and a white envelope with 2,500 pounds was recovered.”

Commenting on rookie pacer Wahab Riaz’s role, the security manager says: “In light of the fact that the News of the World story included photographs of Wahab Riaz wearing a jacket at Al Shishawi restaurant (on Edgware Road) that allegedly belonged to Mazhar Majeed contained 10,000 pounds, I decided to speak to Mr Riaz. Upon inquiry, Mr Riaz told me that he had met Mazhar only twice before this tour — once in 2008/09 and again in 2009-2010 — both times in Pakistan when Mazhar had come to visit Salman Butt and his family.

“He had visited Majeed’s house in the UK once during the first part of the tour, when Pakistan was playing against Australia. He explained that he was driven down there by Mazhar in a Range Rover with Salman Butt and Kamran Akmal for lunch. On the evening in question at the restaurant on the Edgware Road — standing in a T-shirt only and eating ice-cream amid the drizzle, Wahab said he was shivering when Salman Butt insisted he borrowed the jacket from Mazhar to avoid catching a cold in the middle of The Oval Test. Wahab just wore the jacket but did not notice any money in it. He then returned the jacket as they travelled back together by taxi to the team hotel.

“On the basis of Salman Butt’s recommendation he signed Mazhar as his agent after The Oval Test (in which Wahab had made his debut and taken five wickets in the first innings).

The security manager further claims that he had been watching Mazhar Majeed mingling with the Pakistan players since his first tour as official, which was in the T20 World Cup in the West Indies.

Waqar, the head coach, in his statement endorsed the security manager’s statement that both Mazhar and Azhar Majeed are the agents of some of the Pakistani players and claimed that Salman Butt introduced Mazhar to him as his agent and as a good friend. Waqar also expresses surprise over the controversial ‘no-ball’ bowled by Aaamir in the Lord’s Test.

“I remember that the no-ball bowled by Mohammad Aamir on the third ball of his third full over on the second day of the Lord’s Test surprised me greatly.  This was because Aamir’s front foot stepped over the line by a great distance whereas usually, if anything, Aamir tends to bowl from well behind the front-footline. I was so surprised by the delivery that when we went back into the dressing room at the end of that morning session I said to Aamir in Punjabi, ‘What the hell was that’.

“But before Aaamir had the chance to answer my question, Salman Butt interrupted from across the dressing room, saying: ‘I told him to do it because the batsman was coming on the front foot. I told him to come forward and bowl him a bouncer’.”

Lastly, Pakistan’s ODI captain Shahid Afridi, in his statement, says: “When I arrived at the team hotel, I saw the three players (Salman Butt, Mohammad Aamir and Mohammad Asif) in a room together and I thought that they looked guilty. When I spoke to them they told me that they had done nothing wrong, to which I replied: ‘If you have done nothing wrong, there is no need to feel guilty.’ I did not speak to them again after that about the allegations. I was subsequently told by team management that the Metropolitan Police had found 20,000 pounds in Salman Butt’s room in different currencies.”

Afridi also claims that he had informed the team management about the suspect role of Mazhar and his brother Azhar.

He admitted that Mazhar’s elder brother Azhar had been his agent about seven or eight years back and added that he had parted ways after Mazhar misguided him about a deal.

Endorsing the security manager view point, Afridi said he saw Mazhar staying in the Pakistan team hotel during several series in the past.