Bangladesh player Shohaly Akhter has been banned for five years starting from February 10 from all forms of cricket on Tuesday by the International Cricket Council after she admitted breaching five provisions of the ICC Anti-Corruption Code.
Shohaly, who played two WODIs and 13 WT20Is for Bangladesh between 2013 and 2022, was charged by the ICC with corrupt approaches made in relation to matches in the ICC Women鈥檚 T20 World Cup 2023 held in South Africa.
The 36-year-old was not part of that World Cup squad. But the ICC, in its 鈥楢greed Sanction Decision,鈥� which was published on Tuesday, said that she contacted a player of the squad who was mentioned as 鈥榟er friend and team-mate鈥� via Facebook Messenger before the Australia match, which took place on February 14, to ask her whether she would get out hit wicket in that match.
Shohaly, after asking the player 鈥榯o talk with her 鈥榗ousin鈥� who bets on his phone,鈥� told that player that she could be paid Tk 20 lakh if she agreed. Shohaly also told that player that her 鈥榗ousin鈥� could pay her more if Tk 20 lakh was not enough.
Shohaly then told the player that their conversation would be secret, and it was up to her whether to say yes or no.
Shohaly, who sent voice notes, then told the player that she would delete her messages, and so she did.
However, the approached player immediately rejected the approach and reported it to the ACU (Anti-Corruption Unit), providing the ACU with copies of the voice notes Shohaly had sent her, which she had forwarded on before they were deleted.
When interviewed by the ACU, Shohaly confirmed sending the voice messages to that particular player but claimed that she only did so in order to show her friend or cousin that members of the Bangladesh team were not involved in fixing, not because she was genuinely making a corrupt approach.
She also claimed that the screenshots she showed of the messages between her and her friend were sent prior to February 14. But the ACU, having reviewed the underlying metadata for the messages, identified that these screenshots had actually been created after the approach on February 14.
Shohaly then admitted that she had fabricated these messages herself, using two different phones, although she claimed that the contents of the messages were accurate representations of messages that her friend had sent her, which she had subsequently deleted once details of her approach to that player became public.
But the ACU, having obtained evidence through its investigations and after hearing Shohaly鈥檚 admission, charged her with five breaches of codes of Articles 2.1.1, 2.1.3, 2.1.4, 2.4.4, and 2.4.7.
Shohaly, on Tuesday, formally admitted the charges by way of a letter, and thus no formal hearing was needed.
Shohaly was brought back in the national fold after nearly eight years ahead of the T20 World Cup Qualifier in 2022 and finally dropped after participating in that year鈥檚 Asia Cup.