Preliminary hearing of BPL appeals held
The Bangladesh Cricket Board and the International Cricket Council want the Dhaka Gladiators managing director Shihab Chowdhury to be banned for life as they presented their appeal to the disciplinary panel chairman retired justice Mohammad Abdur Rashid.
The preliminary hearing of all four appeals made by the different parties against the BCB’s Anti-Corruption Tribunal’s verdicts in the Bangladesh Premier League match-fixing trial was held at Gulshan on Thursday.
Shihab was banned for 10 years by the Tribunal and was also fined Tk 20 lakh. The Tribunal also had acquitted six individuals charged by the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit of the ICC.
The BCB and the ICC appealed against both the acquittals and Shihab’s punushment, according to Khandakar A Hye, the registrar of the BCB’s disciplinary panel.
‘BCB and DAO [Designated Anti-Corruption Official] made the appeal against the acquittal of Salim Chowdhury, Gaurav Rawat, Mohammad Rafique, Mosharaf Hossain, Mahbubul Alam and Darren Stevens and for imposition of life ban on Shihab Jisan Chowdhury,’ Hye said in a media statement.
Shihab Chowdhury, Mohammad Ashraful and Kaushal Lokuarachchi also submitted their appeal before the head of BCB disciplinary panel.
The Tribunal banned Ashraful, who pleaded guilty, for eight years and fined him Tk 10 lakh while Lokuarachchi, who failed to report the corrupt approach, was handed an 18-month ban.
The disciplinary panel registrar said Ashraful appealed against the lengthy ban while Lokuarachchi demanded the waiver of his sanction.
The final hearing into the appeals will be held from September 8 to 11, said the panel registrar, adding that the decision on the appeals will be made as soon as possible after the hearing.
Before the hearings, each of the appellants has to submit his response by midnight on August 20. The appellants can submit their reply, if any, by September 3.
Johathan Taylor, Iain Higgins and Muddasir Hossain represented the BCB and the ICC in the preliminary hearing while Shihab Chowdhury and his father Salim Chowdhury were represented by Nawroz Chowdhury.
Nawroz also represented Mahbubul Alam and Mosharraf Hossain along with Syfuzzaman Tuhin. There was no lawyer for Mohammad Rafique and Stevenson.
Arif-ul-Hoque Bhuiya represented Gladiators’ Indian chief executive Gaurav Rawat while Khaled Hamid Chowdhury presented the case of Ashraful.
-With New Age input
