Jamshed charged over bribery offences

LONDON: Banned former batsman Nasir Jamshed has been charged in Britain with bribery offences as part of an investigation into spot-fixing in cricket, the National Crime Agency said on Thursday.

Jamshed and two British nationals — Yousaf Anwar and Mohammed Ijaz — were served with written summonses, charging them each with two counts of bribery, said a spokesman for the NCA.

The three men were arrested in February 2017 as part of an investigation that related to tournaments organised by national cricket boards from Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The three men will appear at Manchester magistrates’ court on January 15 each charged with bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery.

An NCA spokesman said all of the alleged offences related to tournaments that took place overseas, including the Pakistan Super League in 2017.

Jamshed was not in the national team at the time of the alleged offences, the spokesman said.

Spot-fixing refers to illegal activity in a sport where a specific part of a game is fixed, unlike match-fixing, where the whole result is fixed.

Jamshed played two Tests, 48 One-Day Internationals and 18 T20s for Pakistan until 2015.

In October, a Pakistan cricket tribunal upheld a 10-year ban on the former opening batsman over his role in various fixing scandals that hit the Pakistan Super League.

Three Pakistan players were involved in a spot-fixing scandal during a 2010 Test in England.

An English court subsequently sentenced Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif and Salman Butt to jail terms, with the players also given five-year worldwide bans from cricket.

Mohammad Amir has since returned to the Pakistan team and is in the squad currently on tour in South Africa.