ICC tight-lipped as nine cricketers charged
The International Cricket Council charged nine individuals on Tuesday with various offences committed during the 2013 Bangladesh Premier League, prompting widespread speculation about their identifies.
Former Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful has already confessed his involvement in the scandal, but the ICC refused to disclose the names or nationalities of other accused.
The global cricket oversight body indicated that all the accused are related to the Dhaka Gladiators franchise, which has been at the centre of the controversy since the story came to light in May.
The names of Gladiators owner Salim Chowdhury, his son Shihab Chowdhury and bowling coach Mohammad Rafique have been mentioned often in media reports, along with players Ashraful, Mosharraf Hossain Rubel and Mahbubul Alam Robin.
Different sources within the Bangladesh Cricket Board said that at least three foreigners involved with the franchise have also been charged by the ICC Anti Corruption and Security Unit.
They pointed to the Gladiators’ Indian chief executive officer Gaurav Rawat, an English county player and a Sri Lankan cricketer as those to have been formally charged by ACSU.
ICC chief executive officer David Richardson said that all the accused have been notified about the charges brought against them and have 14 days to plead guilty before facing a tribunal formed by the BCB.
Richardson said that the trial could take two months to complete, adding that all accused must defend themselves before the BCB tribunal, irrespective of their nationality.
‘All those who have been charged were submitted to the jurisdiction of the BCB anti corruption code,’ said Richardson. ‘And you can imagine that would be the case even if you are a foreign player playing the BPL.
‘You will need to sign a contract where one of the terms will be for you to submit to the jurisdiction. The same applies to the other staffs involved in the BPL.
‘As far as the time frame is concerned, the prosecution of the case and the conduct of hearing will be carried out on behalf of the BCB by the ICC.
‘We envisage that it will take a couple of months. There will be a pre-hearing, where the BCB will make its submission and once they do it we will get to know whether the individuals charged pleaded guilty or not.
‘The ICC will then lodge its submission. Then the accused get the opportunity to reply to those submissions and only after that, when everyone is available, a date [will] be set.
‘That is still a couple of months away, but we will try to do that as quickly as possible,’ Richardson said.
Richardson also said that the ICC is not yet ready to strip the Gladiators of their 2013 BPL title at this stage and will not act on that front until the trial has been completed.
-With New Age input
