Cricket authorities have been combing the world for evidence that will weed out the cancer at the heart of the sport. 

Now we have video tapes that sensationally prove Malik is the paymaster they are hunting. These tapes are available to the police AND the International Cricket Council. 

Slippery Malik, who has just been CLEARED by a high court inquiry into match-rigging, told our undercover reporters: "It will be very easy for me to fix a match.

The players will agree. We’ve all sat together and done it before. It’s better than dealing drugs." 
The former batsman, who at his peak captained Pakistan, met our undercover team at the Kensington Hilton hotel in London late last month. He believed we were high rollers looking to bet on the results of a game — and without any prompting he asked for money and readily admitted he could provide:

• PLAYERS who would throw a match for £200,000 between them. 
• BENT BOOKIES who would also pay a fortune for the knowledge that a game was being fixed. 
• AN ICC OFFICIAL to act as go-between so Malik would not be seen bribing players directly.

He also confessed that cheating was so rife that in one Australia v Pakistan game, players on BOTH SIDES had taken backhanders to throw the match — not realising their opponents were just as bent. 

'We know players that are up for it' With a greedy smile, Mailk said: “In this business you need to have a bookie. I’ll introduce you to an Indian bookie — it all happens in India — he’ll come here to meet you.” 

It is a MASSIVE business. 

The bookies pay the match-fixer a percentage because once they know the result they can fleece their more gullible punters. 

“When you’ve got the main players in your hand you’ll have to be really unlucky to lose,” said Malik, 33. “Really, there’s no chance of losing money. We know which players are up for it. You pay and they will be out. He’ll run himself out, whatever, but he will be out. You can throw your wicket.” 

Malik then reeled off a list of top players whom he claimed to have “worked with” and said that they were still on his payroll. “You’ll have four or five players in hand and they will be playing just for you,” he went on. “No matter what the rest of the team do, they will do what they’ve agreed to do.” 

Now came the important bit, the cost of fixing a match. 

Little realising that our entire conversation was being recorded, he said it would cost £500,000 to fix any given match. This, it turned out, would include £100,000 going to him, plus up to £50,000 per player — say £200,000 in total to cover a sufficient number of batsmen and bowlers to ensure the ‘right’ result — and another £50,000 to one of his tame ICC officials. 

Then there would be flights, phone calls, hotels etc. “But you will make double the money, otherwise it’s not worth it for you,” said Malik quickly. 

This is how part of the conversation went:

Malik: I think that with X (he talks about an ICC official who we cannot name for legal reasons) the lowest he will accept is £50,000. 

Reporter: Per match? 

Malik: Per match because he’ll be doing all the work from the inside. He will be talking to the players, he can do it any time. 

Reporter: So it's £50,000 for him and up to £200,000 for the players? 

Malik: And you have to look after us four or five people that will be working for you. I think that in total the whole job will cost you £500,000. 

As the conversation continued, he ‘firmed up’ the price for his own services. 

“If you involve me I’ll get your job done for £100,000,” he said. 

“I’ll tell you which players and what they’ll do, bowlers and batsmen. There are some other people we have to pay. Some umpires are involved as well. 

"When there are Asian matches there’ll be one Asian and one English. They have to have one from the local country. You nobble umpires when you don’t have the team sorted.” 

We met Malik again for dinner the following evening. 

When the waiters were out of earshot he admitted the controversial Bangladesh v Pakistan match during last year’s World Cup was fixed. 

“Yes something happened there,” he said with a wink. 

During that game, Malik was out lbw for just five runs. The odds against a Bangladesh win were 33-1. Bangladesh scored 223-9, while Pakistan were all out for 161. 

“Sri Lanka also came to Pakistan and hammered us,” he said. “The matches were fixed, which is why Pakistan lost. During that series I reckon around £10 million was bet.” 

‘In a year you make three or four million’

Then he spoke of another bizarre match involving Australia during their 1994/5 tour of Pakistan - each squad had bribed players, he said. 

“Both sides were wondering what the hell was happening,” he added. “We were trying to get them to score runs against us and they wouldn’t. We were tying to get ourselves out and they wouldn’t get us out. “I was the captain in that game. What a lot of aggro that was! It was like we had to kick the ball just to get their runs up.” 

(He means that when a batsman hit a ball near him in the field, he would ‘accidentally’ kick it further on rather than throw it back.) 

Malik suggested that our reporters plough money into the forthcoming Asia Cup in Bangladesh.
“There are loads of series coming up,” he said. “If you get one match a month, and you make £500,000 per series then you don’t need to worry about every match. In a year, if you make three or four million pounds, you’re OK.” 

Following our discussion, Malik met his ICC contact in central London. The pair chatted for over an hour. 

Later Malik told us: “He is prepared to do the business. He says he wants some money in advance. He is greedy.” 

Then Malik revealed his plans to fix England’s tour to Pakistan in October. 

“It will be easy for me to fix the England-Pakistan match,” he said. “Do you know what kind of odds you get on an England-Pakistan match? 12-1, 8-1 (against England winning). We could sort out one umpire, we’ll be his boss. He’ll do what we say.” 

We had been introduced to Malik by one of his friends in the Middle East, a man called Iqbal Khan. He too did not realise that the ‘businessmen’ who met him in Dubai were undercover journalists and unwittingly took us to his friend Malik. 

“I can introduce you to the best man in the business who can fix virtually any match,” he said. 

“But I must warn you that this is a very dangerous business and you have to be very discreet. People have died in this game.” 

Khan reeled off a list of matches he claimed had been rigged. “Basically all the tournaments in the Middle East and Asia are fixed,” he said matter-of-factly. 

“The England v. Pakistan match in Sharjah, when Adam Hollioake led his side to victory, was fixed by my people. England would never have won otherwise.” 

Until now, slippery Malik has always managed to worm his way out of trouble. Back in 1994 he was accused by Australian players Shane Warne and Mark Waugh of offering bribes to throw a match during their tour of Pakistan. 
The players were later fined for selling weather and pitch information to a bookie in Pakistan. Malik completely denied his involvement in the affair. But he told our undercover reporters that he had introduced the Australian players to a bookie. 

“It was just like we are today,” he said. “We were were sitting in a room together... but the thing about white players is you can’t trust them. The b*****ds have weird minds. Just look at that mother****er Shane Warne. He grassed us up!” 

Malik is also one of four players implicated in an official Pakistani judicial inquiry into match-fixing. 

The inquiry heard Salim Parvez, a former Pakistani cricketer, confess to having paid Malik to ensure Pakistan lost a one-day match against Australia. 

The commission has copies of cheques issued to Malik during 1994 and 1995. 

The inquiry was expected to find Malik guilty. 

But two weeks ago Pakistani high court judge Malik Abdul Qayyum concluded there was no “planned match-fixing” by any Pakistani cricketers. Among those cleared was Malik. 

With our dossier of evidence against him, he may not be so lucky again.