A top cricket official revealed that former Bangladesh cricket captain Mohammad Ashraful was suspended from the sport on Tuesday after he confessed his involvement in match-fixing.
In fact, the International Cricket Council's Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) has been investigating allegations of match-fixing during the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).
Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hassan claimed that as Ashraful has confessed his involvement in fixing to the ACSU team, he would not be allowed to play at any level of cricket until they get a full report of the investigation. Hassan disclosed that he spoke to Ashraful and he informed him that he has confessed everything to the ASCU. He added that the batsman has not disclosed details of his confession to him.
Subsequently, Hassan made Tuesday's declaration during a meeting of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) in the capital Dhaka. He called the meeting to deal with the charges, which have been widely reported in local media. BCB spokesman Jalal Yunus revealed that the alleged fixing involves a match between the Dhaka Gladiators and the Chittagong Kings teams during the second edition of the BPL.
According to the reports, the 28-year-old Ashraful was allegedly paid about one million taka ($12,800) to lose the 2nd February match. However the cheque he was given subsequently bounced. It has been reported that the powerful batsman was also involved in fixing another match ten days later against the , which his team lost by seven wickets. History says that Ashraful became the country's youngest Test centurion in 2001 at the age of 17 as well as captained Bangladesh between 2007 and 2009.
The new allegations struck Bangladeshi cricket as well as the BPL. BPL was launched in 2012 as a contemporary of neighbor India's lucrative tournament. On the other side, the Indian cricket is already embroiled in its own scandal involving alleged betting and spot-fixing during the just-finished IPL which led to the arrest of three players, several bookies and others during last month.
