The International Cricket Council (ICC) has charged eight people including players, officials and a couple of Indian team owners, Parag Sanghvi and Krishan Kumar Chaudhary on different counts of corruption during the 2021 edition of Emirates T10 League. The two Indians were co-owners of the team Pune Devils and one of their players in that edition, former Bangladesh Test batter Nasir Hossain has also been charged for breach of league’s anti-corruption code.
The third Indian, who is indulged in corrupt activities, is a little-known batting coach named Sunny Dhillon.
“The charges relate to the 2021 Abu Dhabi T10 Cricket League and attempts to corrupt matches in that tournament – these attempts were disrupted. The ICC was appointed by the ECB as the Designated Anti-Corruption Official (DACO) for the purposes of the ECB’s Code for this tournament and as such are issuing these charges on the ECB’s behalf,” ICC said in a statement.
Sanghvi has been charged under Articles 2.2.1 and 2.4.6 of the Anti-Corruption code.
The Article 2.2.1 pertains to “Placing bets on the results, progress, conduct or other aspect of International and Domestic Matches.” As per Article 2.4.6, Sanghvi was guilty of “Failing or refusing, without compelling justification, to cooperate with any investigation carried out by the DACO in relation to possible Corrupt Conduct under the Code.” Krishan Kumar was charged under Articles 2.4.5, 2.4.6 and 2.4.7 of the ACU code.
The 2.4.5 clause charges him for “Failing to disclose to the DACO (without unnecessary delay) full details of any incident, fact, or matter that comes to the attention of a Participant that may evidence Corrupt Conduct under the Anti-Corruption Code by another Participant.” Dhillon, whose coaching credentials are bare minimal, has been accused of trying to fix matches and charged under Articles 2.1.1, 2.4.4 and 2.4.6.
He has been accused of “being party to an attempt to fix, contrive or influence improperly matches or aspects of matches in the Abu Dhabi T10 2021.” He has also failed to “disclose to the DACO full details of any approaches or invitations received to engage in Corrupt Conduct under the Code.” Nasir, who played 19 Tests and 65 ODIs for Bangladesh was guilty of “Failing to disclose to the DACO receipt of a gift worth over USD 750.” The others who have been suspended, include batting coach Azhar Zaidi, UAE’s domestic players Rizwan Javed and Saliya Saman and team manager Shadab Ahmed.
Six of the charged, including three Indians have been provisionally suspended and all have 14 days from Tuesday to respond to the charges.
Later in the evening, the organisers issued a press note expressing their disappointment and promising more vigilant attitude from the upcoming editions.
“T Ten Sports Management expresses disappointment over the charges levied against eight participants of the 2021 T10 tournament held in the UAE. We take all allegations of this nature seriously and have a zero-tolerance policy for any kind of corruption,” it stated in a media release.
“We will continue to work closely with the ICC on our calendar of T10 tournaments and do everything within our control to ensure the integrity of cricket is upheld,” it further stated.
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