LONDON: The tip-off which triggered the spot-fixing scandal came from within the Pakistan team camp, the Southwark court heard on Wednesday.

Mazher Mahmood, the News of the World journalist who exposed the spot-fixing racket, said that his anonymous source was a former member of the Pakistan cricket management team. The reporter said in court he would never reveal the identity of his informant.

Mahmood, known as the Fake Sheikh, received the tip off in Jan 2010 and took eight months to plan his sting on Mazhar Majeed and the ring of corrupt cricketers.

It is understood that the ICC received a tip off at the same time and their Anti-corruption Unit were still investigating the case when the tabloid sting emerged. The Metropolitan Police had also received a tip off during last summer but did not launch a full investigation by the time the tabloid broke the story.

Mahmood admitted that he received a download of text messages from Majeed’s Blackberry phone — which provided damning evidence he was trying to rig games.At the trial, Mahmood was accused of using illegal phone hacking to gain the information.

He vehemently denied the claim and said that the material was downloaded in a legal manner by someone with authorisation to do so.

The case will be seen as a triumph for Mazher Mahmood, who has been the subject of several collapsed trials, and a final hurrah for the now defunct and disgraced News of the World.—Agencies