UK court sentences Nasir Jamshed for 3 years in spot-fixing scandal

MANCHESTER: Former Pakistani cricketer Nasir Jamshed and his two accomplices were sentenced by the Manchester Crown Court for three years for conspiring to offer bribes to players in the Pakistan Super League (PSL).

In December last year, Jamshed pleaded guilty to the charges in Manchester following his arrest in February 2017 alongside two UK nationals, Yousef Anwarand Mohammed Ijaz.

They were arrested as part of a National Crime Agency (NCA) probe into spot-fixing when an undercover police officer infiltrated the network by posing as a member of a betting syndicate. The operative was introduced to Anwar, who was suspected of involvement in bribery and match-fixing in international cricket.

This led to an attempted fix in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) towards the end of 2016, as well as spot-fixing in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) in February 2017.  In both cases, an opening batsman in had agreed to not score runs from the first two balls of an over in return for payment.

Jamshed was said to be the target of bribery in the Bangladesh spot-fixing plan. He encouraged other players to fix a PSL fixture between Islamabad United and Peshawar Zalmi in Dubai on February 9, 2017. Two other players, Sharjeel Khan and Khalid Latif received five-year bans.

On the opening day of the trial in December, Jamshed chose to change his plea after the other accused admitted offering financial inducements to PSL players to under-performing in the tournament.

Jamshed persuaded Sharjeel Khan to play two dot-balls off the first two balls of Islamabad’s second over. Jamshed himself was the fixer during the BPL contest when he and Sharjeel were both playing for Rangpur Riders.

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. A second attempt was canceled after he was dropped from the final match of the season.

Jamshed, who has played sixty matches for the country, was banned for ten years in August 2018 after an investigation by the Pakistan Cricket Board’s anti-corruption unit.