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Butt, Amir behaved cheekily before Sydney Test in January, match under suspicion of being fixed | Australia's dramatic win over Pakistan in January's Sydney Test is now suspected to be the result of a fix. The day before the Test in January, two of the three Pakistanis who have become embroiled in cricket's greatest match-fixing scandal – Salman Butt and Mohammad Amir - were acting jubilant and cheeky in an Ed Hardy store while clad in fluorescent apparel. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, their
VIP treatment in the store was in stark contrast to teenage sensation Amir's upbringing
in a severely underprivileged and sometimes violent village in Pakistan 's troubled
Swat Valley . Both were drinking branded and bottled Ed Hardy water that peculiar
summer's day. They were joking around, parading clothes to their teammates like
they were casting for Australian Fashion Week. Amir - the left-arm paceman who
is the youngest in the game to bag 50 Test wickets - and stylish opening batsman
Butt rejoiced in each other's company like old friends. Amir struggled to speak
English but his television-certified smile was there. Pakistan 's now captain
Butt did the talking for him, all of it glowing appraisals for the wide-eyed rookie
in awe of the high-flying company he was keeping aged just 17. Intelligent and
endearing, Butt was every bit the leader; a gentleman, a mentor. Last week, UK
millionaire businessman-cum-bookie Majeed, was caught in a media sting, saying
he made 1.3 million dollars from the Test match in Sydney, from which Amir was
a late scratching - when Australia blew out from 40-1 to win the match at 150-1.
'' Australia had two more wickets left,'' Majeed said on a video secretly taped
by the British tabloid News of the World. He further revealed: ''They had a lead
of 10 runs. And Pakistan had all their wickets remaining. We let them get up to
150, then everyone lost their wickets. Tests is where the biggest money is because
those situations arise.'' The outcome of the Test was unusual. Our cricket scribe
Peter Roebuck wrote insightfully: ''A team trying to lose could hardly have played
any worse … the SCG hosted a struggle between a side unwilling to lose and an
outfit afraid to win.'' The former Pakistan coach and Australian Test cricketer
Geoff Lawson last week gave a glimpse into the life of Amir that painted a very
different picture to our day. ''I will never condone any form of fixing but we
should consider that a cricketer might not be thinking of personal gain but of
getting money to buy a generator for his village because they don't have electricity.”
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