English cricketer Darren Stevens on Wednesday admitted to being charged by the International Cricket Council with failure to report attempted corruption in the Bangladesh Premier League.
The ICC announced on Tuesday that seven people had been charged with match-fixing in the BPL, with a further two accused of failing to report approaches to fix the 2013 edition of the Twenty20 competition.
‘I confirm that I have been charged by the ICC with a failure to report a corrupt approach made to me during BPL2 in February this year,’ Stevens said in a statement released by his English county side Kent.
‘I have not been involved in any corrupt activity and have not been charged with any and I am cooperating with the ICC and ACSU (Anti-Corruption and Security Unit) in their investigation and prosecution of the corruption charges in matters relating to the BPL.’
The charge Stevens is facing carries a maximum penalty of a five-year suspension from cricket. He and the other individuals have 14 days in which to enter their pleas.
Stevens is the first of the nine people accused to reveal his identity.
The 37-year-old all-rounder added that he was ‘totally against’ corruption and ‘would never do anything other than perform to the best of my ability in any game’.
He also revealed that he has not been banned from playing by the ICC—unlike the seven people directly accused of corruption—and therefore remains ‘willing and able’ to play for Kent.
The charges stem from Stevens’ tenure with the Dhaka Gladiators BPL team, which the ICC has confirmed is the only club being investigated over allegations of match-fixing and spot-fixing.
All of the nine people under investigation have been charged under the Bangladesh Cricket Board’s anti-corruption code and face a disciplinary tribunal hearing.
The charges were announced on Tuesday by ICC chief executive David Richardson, but he did not reveal the identities or nationalities of those charged.
-With New Age input
