London: Former England wicketkeeper Paul Nixon in an extract from his autobiography ‘Keeping Quiet’ available with the Daily Mail has revealed that an Indian businessman had once approached him to make fix a domestic Twenty20 match in England in 2010 and offered him an astonishing offer of USD 8 million.

He mentioned that the businessman he identified only as ‘K’ got acquainted with him on May 21, 2010 when he met him at the Marriot Hotel in Leicester.

"I strolled through the hotel's glass doors and was greeted by K. We traded pleasantries, sat down with drinks and he briefed me about his business idea," wrote Nixon.

"Over a period of months, always in London but in different hotels, K's interest never faded - and a friendly, working rapport was established," Nixon added further on.

"He made it plain that if I could help things go a certain way in that game, I could make myself very wealthy. All English televised games are beamed back to India, he explained, fuelling an underground betting market worth billions. If I was able to arrange it so that we lost the first six overs, I would be quids in. If I could influence the coin toss, all the better. And should I manage to fix the result, I could become stupidly rich.”

The cricketer mentioned that he got disgusted at the whole conversation and wanted to leave the hotel but then wanted to know who this man was and what were his connections.

Nixon said that he had mentioned the offer to his coach Tim Boon, the ICC's Anti-Corruption and Security Unit and the Professional Cricketers' Association but at the same time kept 'K' interested.

"I knew with 100 per cent certainty, I wasn't going to accept the offer, but kept bouncing the possibilities around in my head during the drive home.”

The man also offered Nixon an anniversary gift back in October of that year and asked him to collect it from his brother. Nixon protested the whole idea.

The former England wicketkeeper said that he denied the order two weeks prior to the targeted match which Leicestershire eventually and the man never contacted him after that.