Banned Bangladesh national cricketer Mohammad Ashraful was pictured for his match fixing crimes by the Daily Mirror Sri Lanka who exposed his involvement in wrong doings in the short-lived Sri Lanka Premier League in 2013.
Ashraful had made a witness statement on May 23, 2013 to the Anti Corruption and Security Unit (Acsu) of the ICC confirming that he had been involved in fixing in the SLPL match between Ruhanu Royals and Wayamba United played on August 26, 2012.
The fixing issue has then created a major storm in SLC following information that SLC President Jayantha Dharmadasa had agreed with ICC at the ICC Board meeting in November 2014 to refrain from taking further action on evidence provided by Ashraful.
SLC Executive Committee had been unaware of Dharmadasa’s action till ICC had forwarded the terms of the settlement agreement in December for a signature on behalf of SLC.
When SLC ex-co learnt of the ICC’s request to sign the agreement, it had led to a heated discussion and the document had been referred to the SLC lawyers for advice. Though ICC had asked the SLC to sign the agreement, they had not made available the full details of the investigation or the statement made by Ashraful. SLC lawyers had advised the ex-co to refrain from signing the ICC document blindly without obtaining this vital information.
At a special ex-co meeting on Wednesday to untangle the confusion, several members had criticised Dharmadasa for keeping them in the dark over the issue. Dharmadasa had said he was waiting for the ICC board meeting to inform all matters to the members and had claimed that he agreed to sign the document on the request of Bangladesh Cricket Board President.
Ashraful was initially banned for eight years, but later the ban was reduced by ICC to five years, two of which are suspended, meaning that it will effectively be only for three years. The reduction of the ban came after Ashraful had taken the matter to the International Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS).