Just when it appeared that the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) fixing scandal would cool off with the tribunal completing its full judgement on Sunday, revelations of inappropriate role played by the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (Acsu) added more fuel to the fire.
The BPL tribunal, in its complete judgement papers that were regulated among the involved parties, questioned Acsu’s role and termed the organisation’s way of dealing with corruption in cricket “unfortunate and wrong.” The tribunal noted deficiencies in the methods of the investigation carried out by Acsu. It found no protocols or guidelines in place for interviewing witnesses or suspects and flaw and incompleteness in the investigation process to the extent that allegations of unfairness could be sustained.
The Dhaka Tribune acquired a copy of the complete judgement yesterday and found various areas where the tribunal mentioned about finding flaws in its approach of investigation.
According to the 59-page report, Acsu was well informed that the match between Dhaka Gladiators and Chittagong Kings on February 2, 2013 was fixed.
The tribunal concluded that Acsu was bound to inform the Bangladesh Cricket Board as it had earlier entered a Services Agreement with Acsu under which it was supposed to assist the board in overseeing, managing, implementing and enforcing all aspects of the code. But Acsu did not inform either the BCB or the local law enforcement authorities about the disclosure of the fixed match.
The tribunal thought that the information of the match being fixed was significant and that it should have been brought to the attention of the BCB and the law enforcement agencies in Bangladesh since corruption of this nature also breached the domestic penal laws.
The tribunal was not impressed with the explanations provided by Acsu as a justification of permitting a fixed and corrupt match to be played. In its judgement, the tribunal mentioned that the focus of the Services Agreement and the code was to prevent match- and spot-fixing.
The tribunal held that the choice made by Acsu, which was to let a corrupt match take place, was unfortunate and wrong. By doing so, the ICC’s anti-corruption team had breached the code. The tribunal further mentioned that it did not accept Acsu’s emphasis on gathering evidence and prosecution of offenders rather than preventing corruption.
According to the judgement, the decision to allow the fixed match between Dhaka Gladiators and Chittagong Kings to go ahead was taken by the head of Acsu in Dubai.
Sir Roanld Flanagan, the head of Acsu, regretted breaching the code and offered a personal apology on behalf of his organisation for not involving the BCB at that stage.
The flaws and disorders of Acsu that came out in the whole saga, however, will not affect the orders placed by the tribunal.
The operation of the three-member body formed by the BCB will continue as scheduled. As for now, the body will hold the sanction judgement on June 18 and appeals should be made within 15 days from the day of the judgement.