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Friday April 19, 2024

How PSL 2017 spot-fixing scandal was exposed?

The police officer's work led to the uncovering of an attempted spot-fixing in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) 2016, and a successful spot fixing in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) in 2017, a court in Manchester was told

By Faizan Lakhani & Murtaza Ali Shah
December 04, 2019

KARACHI/LONDON: The spot-fixing scandal of 2017 Pakistan Super League was exposed after an undercover British police officer, who posed as a member of corrupt betting syndicate, connected with a suspected bookie Yousef Anwar and Pakistani cricketer Nasir Jamshaid.

The police officer's work led to the uncovering of an attempted spot-fixing in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) 2016, and a successful spot fixing in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) in 2017, a court in Manchester was told.

In both the cases, an opening batsman in the Twenty20 tournaments had agreed to not score runs from the first two balls of an over, in return for payment, Manchester Crown Court was told.

Three people, including the former cricketer Jamshaid, were formally charged by the National Crime Agency in the United Kingdom for bribery. The hearing of the case began in Manchester yesterday.

Jamshaid, 33, was also said to be the target of bribery in the Bangladesh "two dot ball" plan. He then allegedly turned into a perpetrator as he encouraged other players to engage in spot-fixing at a PSL fixture in Dubai.

Anwar, 36, and Mohammed Ijaz, 34, pleaded guilty, so Jamshaid became the sole defendant on trial, as he denies being part of the conspiracy to fix in the game between Islamabad United and Peshawar Zalmi on February 9 in Dubai.