Nasir Jamshed pleads guilty to bribery at PSL fixtures

Wednesday, 11 December 2019 01:09 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Nasir Jamshed was given a 10-year ban by the PCB in 2018 – Getty Images

ESPNcricinfo: Nasir Jamshed, the former Pakistan batsman, will be sentenced in February after pleading guilty to a conspiracy to bribe fellow cricketers in the Pakistan Super League (PSL).

Jamshed, 33, was given a 10-year ban by the PCB in August 2018, and is standing trial at Manchester Crown Court, following his arrest in February 2017 alongside two UK nationals, Yousef Anwar, 36, and Mohammed Ijaz, 34.

On the opening day of the trial, Jamshed chose to change his plea, having originally entered a not-guilty plea at a pre-trial hearing last week, after his two co-defendants admitted offering financial inducements to PSL players, with a view to them under-performing during various matches in the tournament.

Opening the case for the prosecution, Andrew Thomas QC told how an undercover police officer infiltrated the spot-fixing network, and secured an initial meeting with Anwar, by posing as a member of a corrupt betting syndicate.

His investigations identified an attempted fix during the Bangladesh Premier League in 2016 and an actual fix in the PSL fixture between Islamabad United and Peshawar Zalmi in Dubai on February 9.

Jamshed, acting as the go-between for the PSL game, persuaded Sharjeel Khan to play out two dot-balls to order from the first two balls of Islamabad’s second over. Sharjeel was later banned for five years by the PCB.

The court heard how Jamshed himself had been the intended fixer during the BPL contests, when he and Sharjeel were both playing for Rangpur Riders.

However, the first attempt was called off when Jamshed did not give all the pre-arranged signals – which included the use of certain coloured batting grips. And a second attempt against Barisal Bulls was cancelled after he was dropped for what was the final match of the season.

The court also heard how Jamshed’s co-defendant, Anwar, had first met the undercover officer at a hotel in Slough in November 2016, where he said he had been involved in spot-fixing for ten years, and claimed to have six players working for him in the BPL.

A second meeting, at a restaurant in Birmingham in January 2017, resulted in Khan and his Islamabad team-mate, Khalid Latif, being lined up for the next fix in the PSL.

The prosecutor added that Latif’s bag had been searched upon arrival from the UK to Dubai, and a number of coloured grips were found. He was also banned for five years by the PCB.