ICC bans Bangladesh offspinner Shohaly Akhter for five years on corruption charges

DUBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Tuesday banned Bangladesh offspinner Shohaly Akhter from all cricket for five years after she admitted breaching five provisions of the ICC Anti-Corruption Code.

According to the ICC media release, Shohaly was found guilty of attempting to fix, seeking or offering a bribe and obstructing or delaying the investigation being carried out by the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Code (ACU).

The charges around her relate to corrupt approaches made in relation to matches in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023 held in South Africa.

Shohaly has represented Bangladesh in 13 women’s T20I’s and 2 women’s ODI’s. According to ICC, the investigation revolved around the approach she made on February 14. 2023, prior to Bangladesh’s match against Australia in the Women’s T20 World Cup 2023.

Bangladesh’s Shohely Akhter has been handed a five-year ban by the ICC for breaching anti-corruption guidelines during the 2023 T20 World Cup.

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Akhter contacted her friend and teammate via Facebook Messenger, sending her voice notes in which she tried to persuade [PLAYER A] to agree to carry out fixes in future Bangladesh matches. The player who was approached by Akhter rejected the offer and reported it to the ACU.

The player provided the ACU with copies of the voice notes Ms Akhter had sent her, which she had forwarded before they were deleted.

Shohaly admitted to being in breach of the following provisions of the Code:

Article 2.1.1: Fixing or contriving in any way or otherwise influencing improperly or being a party to any agreement or effort to fix or contrive in any way or otherwise influence improperly, the result, progress, conduct or any other aspect of any International Match, including (without limitation) by deliberately underperforming therein.

Article 2.1.3: Seeking, accepting, offering or agreeing to accept any bribe or other Reward to (a) fix or to contrive in any way or otherwise to influence improperly the result, progress, conduct or any other aspect of any International Match or (b) to ensure for Betting or other corrupt purposes the occurrence of a particular incident in an International Match.

Article 2.1.4: Directly or indirectly soliciting, inducing, enticing, instructing, persuading, encouraging or intentionally facilitating any Participant to breach any of the foregoing provisions of this Article 2.1.

Article 2.4.4: Failing to disclose to the ACU (without unnecessary delay) full details of any approaches or invitations received by the Participant to engage in Corrupt Conduct under the Anti-Corruption Code.

Article 2.4.7: Obstructing or delaying any investigation that may be carried out by the ACU in relation to possible Corrupt Conduct under the Anti-Corruption Code (by any Participant), including (without limitation) concealing, tampering with or destroying any documentation or other information that may be relevant to that investigation and/or that may be evidence of or may lead to the discovery of evidence of Corrupt Conduct under the Anti-Corruption Code. (ANI)