Former national cricketer Nasir Jamshed was sentenced to 17 months of imprisonment on Friday by a Manchester Crown Court after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bribe other players to spot-fix in a Twenty20 match.
Making his debut in the ODI match against Zimbabwe back in 2008. The left-handed opening batsman became the center of controversy when he was accused of back-to-back allegations of spot-fixing in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) in late 2016 and the Pakistan Super League (PSL) in February 2018.
Following a covert investigation by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) in 2017, Jamshed admitted bribing cricketers to fix elements of international matches.
In December 2019, 32-year-old Jamshed, who was living in Oldbury in the West Midlands, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery.
33-year-old Jamshed was already banned by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for 10 years in August 2018. Jamshed has played Test, one-day and Twenty20 international cricket for Pakistan. Jamshed played 48 one-day internationals for Pakistan and two Test matches from 2008 to 2015.
Two other men, Yousef Anwar, 36, and Mohammed Ijaz, 34, admitted last week to offering financial advantages to PSL players with the intention of inducing them to perform improperly by failing to play competitively in good faith.
Getting Caught:
Anwar and Ijaz had developed a system where a willing player would signal at the start of the match to confirm the fix was on. Typically, they would charge £30,000 (Dh 142,000) per fix with half of that going to the player.
The following year, the three men planned to fix the Pakistan Super League (PSL) matches being played in Dubai. In February 2017 Anwar flew out to Dubai to meet other professional players, including Islamabad United teammates Khalid Latif and Sharjeel Khan, who agreed to fix certain aspects of the match.
Before flying out to join them, Anwar was captured on CCTV purchasing 28 different coloured cricket bat handle grips. These would subsequently be used by the players as the signal to show the fix was going ahead.
The PSL fixture between Islamabad United and Peshawar Zalmi was played in Dubai on February 9, 2017. Despite Latif originally agreeing to the fix, it was Khan who entered the crease almost five hours into the game displaying the pre-agreed signal.
Khan then carried out the fix, playing two dot balls in the first two balls of the second over, before getting out leg before wicket for 0 in the third ball of the over.
On February 13, 2017, Jamshed was arrested by NCA officers at his home, and Anwar was arrested at Heathrow Airport after flying back from Dubai. Ijaz was detained at his home in Sheffield ten days later.
Jamshed, Latif, Khan, and a fourth player, Mohammed Irfan, were all suspended by the Pakistan Cricket Board following subsequent tribunal hearings.
Ian McConnell, the NCA’s Senior Investigating Officer, said: “These men abused their privileged access to professional, international cricket to corrupt games, eroding public confidence for their own financial gain. Tackling corruption and bribery in its various forms is a priority for the National Crime Agency. We will vigorously pursue those involved and target their illicit profits which are so often used to fund further criminality.”
Nasir’s wife tweeted out her embarrassment and disappointment in Nasir in an open letter.
Today is the most difficult day of my life as Nasir starts his custodial sentence & I figure out what to tell my 4 year old.. I’ve felt the need to write this in the hope that others learn from Nasirs mistakes & no one goes through the pain we have suffered in the last 3 years. pic.twitter.com/fgkkMiglgz
— Dr Samara Afzal (@SamaraAfzal) February 7, 2020
The International Cricket Council (ICC) signed a memorandum of understanding with the NCA three years ago to allow intelligence sharing between the two organizations.
