The final hearing of the appeals of BCB/Acsu versus former national skipper Mohammad Ashraful will resume on the last day of the four-day-long hearing today. It was due to the pros and cons statements that the arguments of his hearing procedure could not be completed yesterday.
Apart from Ashraful, hearings of Dhaka Gladiators managing director Shihab Chowdhury, cricketers Mahbubul Alam, Mosharraf Hossain, Mohammad Rafique, English all-rounder Darren Stevens will also be held today.
Meanwhile, hearing of Sri Lanka cricketer Kaushal Lokuarachchi was terminated yesterday following the cricketer and his appointed lawyer Dinal Philips being absent for the hearing session. However, it was informed by the BCB Disciplinary Panel of the Bangladesh Cricket Board that the Lankan cricketer has sent a written statement to the chairman of the panel, former justice Mohammad Abdur Rashid, regarding his absence.
The tribunal handed down Lokuarachchi an 18-month ban for failing to report the fixing approach to him made by a team official.
Both respondent and complainant have presented their respective statements, arguments, supporting documents and evidence against the decision of the anti-corruption tribunal sponsored by Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on Ashraful.
“It has been told in law that one will be suspended for the maximum five years owing to an offence,” said Barrister Khaled Hamid Chowdhury, Ashraful’s lawyer, after the end of the third day’s hearing.
“But our client has been barred for five years along with a three-year suspended sentence with a fine of Tk1m. We have presented our statement before the panel chairman to reconsider his sanctions as he has been cooperating with the ICC, Acsu and Tribunal from the very beginning of the event. Along with that, we tried to notice through our statements so that there is any clause or scope to reconsider his sanction,” Khaled added.
“The arguments and considerations for and against his sanctions will continue tomorrow (today),” informed the Barrister.
