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London:Nasir Jamshed, the former Pakistan batsman, has been sentenced to 17 months in prison at Manchester Crown Court, after pleading guilty in December to a conspiracy to bribe fellow cricketers in the Pakistan Super League (PSL).
Jamshed, 33, was given a ten-year ban by the PCB in August 2018, and had been anticipating a custodial sentence after changing his plea on the opening day of his trial.
That followed the admission of his two co-defendants, Yousef Anwar, 36, and Mohammed Ijaz, 34, that they had offered financial inducements to PSL players with a view to them under-performing during matches in the tournament. Anwar was sentenced to 40 months in prison and Ijaz 30 months.
In December, the case for the prosecution had told how an undercover police officer had infiltrated the trio’s spot-fixing network by posing as a member of a corrupt betting syndicate. That investigation 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 made-to-order dot-balls off the first two balls of Islamabad’s second over. Sharjeel was later banned for five years by the PCB, as was Khalid Latif, another player whom Jamshed had recruited for a subsequent fix.
The court also 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.
In a statement issued after the sentence was handed down, Jamshed’s wife, Samara Afzal, told of the “pain and humiliation” that her husband’s actions had caused to their family, and warned other cricketers not to be tempted by corruption in a sport where, she wrote, an international player can earn more than she does as a doctor.
“Nasir could have had a bright future had he worked hard and been committed to the sport than gave him so much, but he took a short cut and lost everything, his career, status, respect and freedom,” she wrote. “He would have got UK nationality and played county cricket, and he threw his chance away.
“He would do anything to turn the clock back and not lose everything, especially his daughter who he is very close to, but it’s too late for him. I hope all cricketers look at his example as a deterrent against corruption.”