The Dhaka Gladiators’ lawyer questioned the authority of the International Cricket Council to investigate the Bangladesh Premier League match-fixing scandal and alleged that their foreign players and coach were spared discriminatorily. ‘The documents that were made available to us, they show coach Ian Pont was aware of everything and he had accepted $6,000 for it,’ Gladiators lawyer Nawroz Chowdhury revealed after the first day’s formal hearing on Sunday.
The three-member Anti-Corruption Tribunal began the formal hearing on Sunday, with representatives of all but one of the nine individuals charged in attendance.
Former Bangladesh spinner Mohammad Rafique, who has largely maintained his silence since receiving the charge in August, was absent from the trial. He did, however, submit a written application pleading not guilty, said Nawroz.
Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Nawroz claimed that the tribunal itself questioned the decision of the ICC Anti Corruption and Security Unit – which had investigated the matter – to spare Pont.
‘Tribunal correctly raised a question that there is no charge against Pont,’ said Nawroz. ‘This is what we also wanted to raise. All serious charges were brought only against Bangladeshi individuals, be him a player or owner of the team.
‘No serious allegation was brought against foreigners. The little charges that were brought against them were for their failure to report corrupt approach made to them to the BCB or ICC.’
‘Gladiators lost the game [against the Chittagong Kings by 54 runs] because of the failure of the batsmen. Joshua Cobb, [Mohammad] Ashraful, Anamul Haque, [Darren] Stevens, Owais Shah, were involved in 25-5. Then Soumya [Sarkar] and Kaushal [Lokuarachchi] got out to make the score line 47-7.
‘Here most of the players involved are foreigners. Why they lost so many wickets? This should have been the main question. But there is no serious [charge] against them,’ he said.
The Gladiators’ lawyer was referring to the fact that six Bangladeshis and one Indian were charged for match-fixing, while Englishman Stevens and Sri Lankan Lokuarachchi were only charged for their failure to report corrupt approaches.
‘The whole thing is discriminatory. Here ICC almost made BCB a victim,’ said the Gladiators’ lawyer. He also insisted that, being the superior authority, the ICC has no right to be employed by the inferior BCB.
‘The agreement through which the BCB empowered ICC for investigation is faulty. We raised this question. Let’s see.’
Stevens was the only one of the nine of accused to personally attend the hearing, which will resume on Tuesday.
-With New Age input
