Sept. 1: The sleepy Moonshi Mohallah of Faisalabad suddenly gained global attention as alleged British match-fixer Mazhar Majeed’s roots are in this textile city. Mazhar was arrested by London Metropolitan Saturday after The News of World revealed, in a sting operation, that the property-tycoon had taken £150,000 before Pakistani fast bowlers Mohammed Asif and Mohammed Amir bowled no balls in the last Test at the precise moments promised to the undercover reporter.
The residents of moonshi mohallah were shocked to hear that Mazhar’s name was linked to the spot-fixing saga. Mazhar’s father Abdul Majeed was highly respected in the neighbourhood. He migrated to Britain in 1962 after completing his Bachelors from the Agriculture University in Faisalabad.
Abdul’s three children —one daughter and two sons Azhar and Mazhar — were born and raised in England. “We don’t know the children because they were born in UK but we do know that their father Abdul has never been involved in any wrongdoing,” a shopkeeper Saleem was quoted as saying by Dunya TV. Majeed is known to many members of the Pakistan team as a UK-based agent and has spent the past decade building up an image as a successful businessman.
Majeed was well known in south London as the owner of his local football club as well as a property developer who invited politicians and sports stars to his events. He and his young family live in a £1.8 million home, where neighbours said he would host barbecues for hundreds of guests.
But hidden among his company directorships are thousands of pounds in unpaid bills and a string of firms that have closed down, the Daily Telegraph reported. Majeed attended Coulsdon High school and studied business at Middlesex University before forming Bluesky Developments with a friend, Faisal Hameed, in 1999. They began by renovating derelict houses in south London.
By 2007, the developers were being commended by council officers and business leaders in Croydon, on the outskirts of London, for their developments and were raising money for charities. Later that year Bluesky hosted a fund-raising event attended by leading cricketers such as the former Pakistan captain Inzamam ul-Haq. The following year it sponsored a charity cricket match attended by the former England spinner Phil Tufnell. According to local newspaper reports, Bluesky was even then the sponsor of Salman Butt, now the Pakistani captain.
But Bluesky began to lose money in the recession and was wound down. Companies House records show it has five county court judgments for unpaid bills totalling £74,163 against it. By 2008, Majeed had moved into the world of football, becoming the “co-owner” of Croydon Athletic.
Earlier this summer, the non-league club’s former chairman, Dean Fisher, was jailed for defrauding the company, although Croydon Athletic denied it was funded by his ill-gotten gains. Companies House files show that Majeed has been a registered director of 28 different companies although most are no longer running.
One of them, Valesco Ltd, is in receivership while another, Able Trading Ltd, has been liquidated. He is listed as a director of a group of 20 financial vehicles called Capital Investments, of which only two are currently solvent.
Along with his brother Azhar, Mazhar claimed to represent the interests of a number of Pakistan’s top cricketers in the UK. Over a number of years Azhar and Mazhar have handled various marketing contracts for the players in the UK. How familiar the brothers are with the players is also evident from the UK-based Pakpassion.net, a fan website that regularly carries out interviews with Pakistan’s cricketers.