Key figure in Pakistan fixing scandal dies

Former international opener Salim Pervez, a key figure in a Pakistan match-fixing inquiry, died after suffering fatal injuries in a road accident, family and friends said Wednesday. "Pervez was riding a motorcycle when he was hit by a bigger vehicle on Sunday and could not recover from fatal injuries and died early Wednesday," a friend of Pervez told AFP.

Pervez, 65, told a match-fixing inquiry conducted by judge Malik Mohammad Qayyum in the late 1990s that he acted as a middleman between some Pakistani players and bookies. Qayyum said Pervez confessed to handing Salim Malik and Mushtaq Ahmed $100,000 to throw a final in Sharjah.

The inquiry was initiated by Pakistan in 1998 after Australian players Shane Warne, Tim May and Mark Waugh alleged that Malik offered them a bribe to underperform on their team's tour to Pakistan in 1995.

AFP