Spot-fixing: Yuvraj, Bhajji dismiss Majeed's claims

The spot-fixing scandal appeared to hit home when it was revealed that Mazhar Majeed, the Pakistani players’ agent at the heart of the spot-fixing scandal, bragged to the undercover reporter, Mazhar Mahmood of the now defunct tabloid News of the World, that he “had access” to Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh. Suddenly, it seemed like India was once again at the heart of a fixing scandal. Majeed had, of course, also spoken about West Indies’ Chris Gayle, Australia’s Ricky Ponting and Brett Lee but that didn’t matter. He did not mention what having access meant or the fact that almost every cricket journalist in India has access to these cricketers. [caption id=“attachment_104815” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Yuvraj Singh has rubbished spot-fixing claims by Mazhar Majeed. Getty Images”] [/caption] Suddenly the focus shifted to Yuvraj and Harbhajan. Without any evidence or proof, the duo was under suspicion. And Yuvraj, for one, responded by tweeting: “And who is majid!! absolute rubbish! Don’t no never met!” In another tweet, he said: “The problem in india is if some one says a rooster has given an egg it will become news !! Whether its true or not its doesn’t matter” Harbhajan, in fact, threatened action. “I don’t know who this person is, I have never met him. We will definitely take some action against him. I don’t know whether it will be a legal action or whatever,” said Harbhajan in Nagpur where he is currently playing in the Challenger Series. “But I will definitely bring it to BCCI’s notice and I am sure that they will take the right kind of action against these kind people who are trying to spoil the game,” added the feisty off-spinner. Majeed had also mentioned the name of former IPL commissioner, Lalit Modi, as a “good” friend. But then he had also mentioned Mike Gatting, Phil Tufnell, Geoffrey Boycott and Imran Khan as “good friends”. While the BCCI has chosen to remain mum on the issue, Cricket Australia has already responded to Majeed’s ‘outlandish claims.’ Majeed, had accused of taking bribes to fix matches, and said Australian cricketers were “the biggest” culprits of fixing and they fixed “brackets.” In response, CA chief executive James Sutherland told reporters that the allegations appeared to be “outlandish”. “The sweeping statements unfairly malign Australian cricketers,” Sutherland said on Tuesday. “We haven’t been able to speak to the International Cricket Council overnight … but we will definitely make contact with them very quickly.”