Mohammad Ashraful made a dream start to his international career back in 2001, when he became the youngest centurion in Test history on his debut against Sri Lanka. Fast forward 12 years and the wonder boy has become a villain in the public eye, with the whole nation witness to his connection with spot-fixing.
The allegations against Ashraful came about after three Indian cricketers, including national team member Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, and a bookie were arrested in India over spot-fixing allegations. In the aftermath, police sources told CNN-IBN that a prominent Bangladeshi player, who had never played in the IPL, was also suspected of spot-fixing.
An ICC Anti-Corruption Security Unit, Acsu, came to Dhaka last week and interviewed Ashraful, as well as a few other players. Ashraful allegedly confessed his involvement and also gave some valuable information about spot-fixing to Acsu.
The 28 year-old Ashraful finds himself in a difficult situation. He is unable to even leave his house, where the media have gathered en masse in the hope of speaking to the fallen cricketer.
A close friend of his, requesting anonymity, said: “He is going through the toughest time of his life, he can’t even talk properly. His mental condition has been poor over the past few days. “He was very depressed mentally as almost 20 to 30 journalists gathered outside his home yesterday, which seem like he has committed a murder or something similar to that, but the truth is he is just one small part of a bigger story and whatever he said was absolutely true.
“When Ashraful was in England, one of them (others involved) provided his mobile number to the bookie whose name was directly linked with the fixing recently.”
The source went on to add that Ashraful wants to have the whole matter inished as soon as possible and handling the pressure of the situation was straining his mental state to almost breaking point. It seems unlikely Ashraful will get his wish. Each day, more information is coming out and the list of names linked to match fixing is growing. It might be a long time before the scandal is finally put to rest.