The Bangladesh Cricket Board could seal the fate of batman Mohammad Ashraful after his confession of match-fixing to the ICC Anti Corruption and Security Unit when it sits in an emergency meeting today.
The meeting was called to apprise the BCB members about the ongoing investigation into the match-fixing scandal in the Bangladesh Premier League by ACSU.An ACSU panel that was visiting Dhaka for the two days left the city on Monday after a meeting with the BCB president, Nazmul Hasan, who was not ready to disclose anything to the media before he apprises the issue to his BCB colleagues.
Barring Nazmul, acting BCB chief executive officer Nizamuddin Chowdhury and BPL secretary Ismail Haider Mallick, all the BCB officials were in the dark about the ACSU investigation that has been going on for quite sometime.
The investigation came to light only after recent media reports, most of which implicated former captain Mohammad Ashraful in the entire saga. The BCB officials, however, refused to confirm if the investigation was over or the ACSU members will come again to dig into the matter further.
‘They [ACSU] have left for Dubai, we are not sure if they will come again,’ Nizamuddin Chowdhury, acting chief executive officer of the BCB, told reporters on Monday.
‘The board president will brief on this matter. We will have a meeting before he speaks to the media tomorrow [Tuesday],’ said Nizamuddin.
The governing council of the BPL sought assistance from the ACSU in order to rid the game of corruption and the investment of about Tk 2 crore was vindicated as they could get hold of some of the wrongdoers.
It was reported that Gladiators owner Salim Chowdhury and managing director Shihab Chowdhury asked Ashraful to give up some matches and use certain bowlers during the overs in question.
The Gladiators owners reportedly had a meeting with Ashraful before the tournament where it was alleged that they promised to clear the dues of the players from the first edition if he managed to fix some matches.
Though the Gladiators owners vehemently denied the allegations, their involvement in the affair became further clear when their bowling coach Mohammad Rafique accused them of match-fixing.
It was reported that Ashraful, along with the Gladiators’ left-arm spinner Mosharraf Hossain and pace bowler Mahbubul Alam might be banned temporarily for their alleged involvement in match-fixing.
ACSU quizzed the managing director of Gladiators, Shihab Chowdhury, along with officials named Ali Akbar and Jamilur Rashid but could not interrogate the chairman, Salim Chowdhury.
It was also learnt that the ACSU members were looking to interrogate Gladiators boss Salim but he was not available in the country and his no show-up before the ACSU could further prolong the investigation.
-With New Age input
