The scandal centered on three members of Pakistan's national cricket team, who were convicted of taking bribes from a bookmaker, Mazhar Majeed, to deliberately bowl no-balls at certain pre-arranged moments during the Test.
[3] While in July 2010, the ICC Anti Corruption and Security Unit served notices to two unnamed players seeking information into allegations of spot and match fixing.
In the video posted by News of the World, Majeed, counting out the bribe money, predicted that Amir would be bowling the third over in the fourth test at Lord's, and that the first ball of the over would be a no-ball delivery.
At the same time, former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif suggested that the spot-fixing controversy might be a set-up and that the leaked video contained a certain number of ambiguities.
[8] Iqbal Mohammad Ali, a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan and chairman of the standing committee on sports, called for the removal of the players in question from the team.
All three players maintained their innocence of the charges levelled against them, but were suspended from playing pending an investigation by the International Cricket Council, which determined that they "had an arguable case to answer", on 4 September 2010.
Salman Butt announced that he hoped the appeals would be completed quickly so that he could make a swift return to international cricket and participate in the series against South Africa in October 2010.
[18] A tribunal to decide the fates of the players was held in January 2011[19] The panel comprised Michael Beloff, Albie Sachs and Sharad Rao – all with previous experience in sporting trials.
[23][24] The suspension of sentences for Butt and Asif were conditional on each "[committing] no further breach of the code and...[participating] under the auspices of the Pakistan Cricket Board in a programme of anti-corruption education".
Scotland Yard announced on 17 September 2010 that the initial file of the investigation had been passed on to the Crown Prosecution Service for them to decide whether to charge the players or not.
[31][32] The judge, Jeremy Cooke, rejected a plea in mitigation from Amir that he had been involved in spot-fixing on only one occasion, on the grounds that the contents of text messages submitted as evidence suggested otherwise.
Former Pakistan captain Aamer Sohail spoke of a "shameful" day for Pakistani cricket, adding "this is what happens when you don't react quickly enough to fight corruption".
[35][36][37][38] Then-Australia captain Ricky Ponting expressed concern over the addition of an Australian victory against Pakistan to a list of more than 80 previous matches under investigation.
[42] After the spot-fixing scandal emerged Pakistan registered a victory against England in the third ODI and the ICC announced the match was under investigation due to suspicious behaviour.
[44] Pakistani cricketer, Yasir Hameed denied the allegations published in News of the World that he had turned down a bookmaker's offer of £100,000 to help fix a Test.
[45] In November 2010, wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider left the Pakistani cricket team before their fifth and decisive one-day game against South Africa, and flew from Dubai (where the series was being held) to London's Heathrow Airport.
The board expressed disappointment that Haider had left the team and flown to London instead of reporting the threats to the PCB and the ICC's anti-corruption unit.