Opener pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe fellow players to spot fix in a T20 match
07 February, 2020
PHOTO: AFP
Pakistan opener Nasir Jamshed has been jailed for 17 months after he had pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to bribe fellow cricketers as part of a Twenty20 spot-fixing coup.
The 33-year-old had originally denied being involved in a plan focused on the Pakistan Super League but changed his plea during a court hearing in the first week of December last year in Manchester, northwest England.
Two other men, Yousef Anwar, jailed for 40 months, and Mohammed Ijaz, 30 months, had also admitted to offering financial advantages to PSL players with the intention of inducing them to perform improperly by failing to play competitively in good faith.
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Prosecutors told the court that an undercover police officer had unearthed evidence by pretending to be a member of a corrupt betting syndicate.
The policeman's efforts then led to the discovery of an attempted fix in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) late in 2016 and an actual fix in the PSL in February 2017.
In both cases, an opening batsman in the Twenty20 tournaments had agreed to not score runs from the first two balls of an over in return for payment.
Jamshed was said to be the target of bribery in Bangladesh before turning perpetrator as a go-between urging other players to spot-fix in a PSL match between Islamabad United and Peshawar Zalmi in Dubai on February 9.
Spot-fixing involves rigging a specific aspect of a game on which bookmakers have offered odds, unlike match-fixing, where the whole result is fixed.
Jamshed represented Pakistan in two Tests, 48 one-day internationals (ODIs) and 18 Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is).
