The owners of the Bangladesh Premier League franchise Dhaka Gladiators said they will not appear before the anti-corruption tribunal, set up by the Bangladesh Cricket Board, until a case pending with the Dhaka judge’s court is resolved. Gladiators filed the case on October 21 as the BCB failed to form the tribunal within the stipulated time after the International Cricket Council charged nine individuals for match-fixing related offences in the BPL on August 13.
‘Since the case is now sub judice, I don’t think it will be wise for us to attend any kind of hearing before the BCB tribunal,’ Salim Chowdhury, chairman of Dhaka Gladiators, told New Age on Thursday.
Salim and his son Shihab are among the nine accused, who were served with a notice to appear before the tribunal for a preliminary hearing on November 24 at its Navana Tower office at Gulshan.
Earlier this week, Justice Mohammad Abdur Rashid, who heads a 10-member disciplinary panel, formed the tribunal with Justice Khademul Islam, Ajmalul Hossain QC and former cricketer Shakil Kashem as its members.
The BCB formed the disciplinary panel on November 9, nearly three months after the ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit formally charged the accused.
The ICC gave the accused 14 days’ time to plead guilty or innocent and said a tribunal would be formed by the BCB within 40 days to hear their cases.
‘We waited for 40 days but did not see any tribunal within the timeframe,’ said Salim Chowdhury.
‘It was very painful for us as we have a reputation in the society. So we served the BCB a legal notice after the deadline. The BCB chief executive officer gave us a reply and requested us to wait until October 6. When that deadline also ended we had no choice but to go to court.’
Salim added that they have received a notice from the tribunal to attend a hearing, but they have already informed the tribunal that they are unable to oblige.
‘We have told the tribunal that our case is pending in the Dhaka judge’s court. Unless the case is resolved we cannot attend the hearing,’ he said.
‘So far I know two players [Mosharraf Hossain and Mahbubul Alam] also filed a case and will not attend the hearing, though I don’t have any details about them,’ he added.
The Gladiators owner, however, could not provide any clue about Gurav Rawat, the Indian chief executive officer of the franchise, who was also charged by the ICC for being directly involved in match-fixing.
‘Our contract with him was just for one season. So we don’t really know what he is doing. My only understanding about him is that he has already defended himself before the ACSU,’ he said.
It was learnt that Sri Lankan cricketer Kaushal Lokuarachchi and English county player Darren Stevens, who were charged for failing to comply with their obligation to report corrupt approaches that were made to them, will attend the hearing through their lawyers.
The ICC banned the seven accused persons from cricket provisionally but allowed Lokuarachchi and Stevens to play cricket.
-With New Age input
