Yasir Hameed has issued his official statement

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Yasir Hameed statement

Following the latest match-fixing allegations to emerge on Sunday, Yasir Hameed attended the Pakistan High Commission in London to explain his comments. He spent four hours with officials before issuing this statement

I would like to respond to comments attributed to me by the News of the World today. I wish to stress I have never been approached by the NOTW and neither did I approach anyone connected with the News of the World to disclose any allegations concerning the Pakistan cricket team or any other players.

The incident which was largely inaccurately reported in the News of the World today was when I was having dinner with a friend at the Holiday Inn Nottingham on the evening of Monday 30th August 2010. I was then approached by a man who introduced himself as Abid Khan and offered that he would arrange a sponsorship deal for me with ETIHAD Airways. **I have now seen a photograph of the so called Abid Khan and have discovered that he is Mazhar Mahmood. **

Naturally I was interested in what he had to say and we began conversation. He offered me at least £50,000 for the deal, which was for 6"x3" ETIHAD sticker at the back of the cricket bat plus TV and billboard advertisements in the UAE. He also asked me for names of 4 more players who may be interested in a similar deal I thought of Umar Gul, Shahid Afridi, Umar Akmal and Fawad Alam.

I also called Umar Gul during this conversation to tell him about this potential contract deal and he agreed that I should continue with the negotiations. Then Abid Khan started asking about the current match fixing allegations and as I saw him as a friend and a potential agent I naively started to answer his questions. He asked me about the match fixing allegations against the current 3 Pakistani players and if I had any further knowledge. As far as I can recall I only told him whatever I had already read in the newspapers about this matter.

It seems that Abid had a hidden camera which I was totally unaware of. I then left the hotel with my friend and came back to where I was staying. Two days later Abid then called me and offered me £25,000 to give a statement against the 3 current players under investigation, which I immediately refused and put the phone down. I neither called nor answered any calls from Abid after this conversation. When News of the World released my conversation, which Abid Khan recorded without me knowing about it, I was contacted by the media in Pakistan to confirm if I gave the statement to the NOTW, I denied categorically as explained above that this was not the case. Subsequently, I received a text message from Abid Khan from his number 0** **** ***6, which I found to be intimidating as reflected in his message reproduced below:

"Pls call me. Incidentally you are in video drinking wine and saying
all the quotes attributed to you. Denying it is just stupid as we will
be releasing the video to tv. Better that you stand up and speak the
truth!!!."

However, I decided not to respond or react. I brought the matter to the attention of PCB.

Source: http://www.cricinfo.com/england-v-pakistan-2010/content/current/story/475881.html

So this time Mazher Mehmood was Abid Khan. One more failure of management when they didn’t warn their players about Mazher considering that Yasir was trapped by Mazher two days after NOTW broke the news on August 29.

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Re: Yasir Hameed has issued his offcial statement

AFRIDI UNIMPRESSED WITH HAMEED

Pakistan’s limited-overs captain Shahid Afridi has described Yasir Hameed as having the mental age of an adolescent.

Thirty-two-year-old Hameed was quoted in Sunday morning’s News of the World, accusing his Pakistan team-mates of trying to lose matches for apparent financial gain, although he later released a statement insisting he was only repeating allegations he read in the newspapers.

But Afridi, whose team lost their NatWest International Twenty20 opener against England in Cardiff on Sunday by five wickets, claims Hameed - not part of the current limited-overs squad - is an unpredictable character.

“I think he is 30, 31. But mentally he is 15, 16,” he said.

Asked whether Hameed can be unreliable, he added: “Yeah, the people know which type of character he is.”

Hameed played in the final two Tests of this summer’s series against England, which ended at Lord’s.

It was during that match that News of the World claims surfaced - alleging Test captain Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer were part of a plot to assist illegal bookmakers by arranging to bowl no-balls to order.

All three have since been charged and suspended by the International Cricket Council’s anti-corruption unit (ACSU).

A follow-up report in the Sunday tabloid this morning quoted opening batsman Hameed, apparently incensed at his team-mates’ behaviour. Afridi added: "I don’t know with whom he was sitting or in which situation he gave this message.

"I don’t know, but we have known him for a long time and we can expect anything from him.

“He has been doing these type of things a lot of times.”

Hameed’s statement was read out by a spokesman on the steps of the Pakistan High Commission.

In it, he explains the circumstances in which he spoke to a News of the World reporter - whom he did not recognise as such at the time, because he was under the impression he was being offered a sponsorship deal rather than asked for an interview.

“Naturally, I was interested in what he had to say - and we began a conversation,” he recalls in the statement.

"He offered me at least £50,000 for the deal.

"As I saw him as a friend and a potential agent, I naively started to answer his questions.

“As far as I recall, I only told him whatever I had already read in the newspapers about the matter.”

Hameed said he later received a mobile phone text from the man, which read: "Please call me. Incidentally you are on video drinking wine and saying all the quotes.

“Denying it is just stupid, and we will be releasing the video to TV. Better that you just stand up and speak the truth.”

This morning, the News of the World also claimed a fourth Pakistan player - unnamed “for legal reasons” - is being investigated by the ACSU.

The world governing body are unable to confirm or deny the existence of work being undertaken by the ACSU.

http://www.sportinglife.com/cricket/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=cricket/10/09/05/CRICKET_Pakistan_2nd_Nightlead.html

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Re: Yasir Hameed has issued his offcial statement

Coming from Afridi :omg:

On a serious note, all these chaddi utaring now tells us why certain players get dropped even if they perform okay/good… just to bring back the friend they can hang out with after match or take into confidence for the upcoming “deal” etc.

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Re: Yasir Hameed has issued his offcial statement

Sigh. Inn sab ko chup rehnay ka roza rakhna chahye. The most disturbing thing for me about all this is the way they are defaming each other. Now I should go back to doing news fasting. No use, just adds unnecessary anxiety.

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Re: Yasir Hameed has issued his offcial statement

Exactly! a moron who was munching on a cricket ball like it was an apple in front of 12 cameras! How many time did he get out playing brainless shots.

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Once crazy guy shouting at the other fool. These kids must be handled with a headmaster having a very thick oily dunda .

That s why imran khan kept board on his foot and handled the team like kids

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Re: Yasir Hameed has issued his offcial statement

Afridi's statement is uncalled for. Hameed's video does not matter because it was not an "interview" as NOTW had described. It was just a guy describing his private, personal opinions and/or newspaper reports.

Pretty low of Mazhar Mahmood and NOTW to try to blackmail Yasir Hameed on his wine-drinking.

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Re: Yasir Hameed has issued his offcial statement

Speaking of drinking:

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Re: Yasir Hameed has issued his offcial statement

This Mazhar Mahmood guy looks like the typical lifafa journalist. Low life blackmailer.

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Re: Yasir Hameed has issued his offcial statement

The criticism should be focussed more on scumbag players than the messenger.
Yasir did not know that he was being filmed, this is why he told the truth that he believed.

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LOL..this one was halarious...... as far as I know almost everyone is Pak (from the so-called elite club) now drinks on regular basis.....even in ramadan, alcolohol parties are very common in islamabad....so kaya howa..agar hamary CM sahib nay 2 ghoont pee layee....

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^ Each to his own but it is clearly not acceptable for a person holding a public office to be 'tunnn' like that in public

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yeah and words of Yasir are wrongly represented for eg

Yasir said, "Jo pakra jaye wohi chor hai"

He translated, "Those who are caught are crooks' :\