SHAKIB SUSPENDED

What the Anti-Corruption Unit found in their interviews with Shakib Al Hasan

by Cricbuzz Staff • Last updated on

Shakib did not report the two approaches from Deepak Aggarwal requesting inside information © Getty

After a thorough investigation, the International Cricket Council on Tuesday banned Shakib Al Hasan for two years for failing to report corrupt approaches made to him on multiple occasions since late 2017. The ACU conducted extensive interviews with the Bangladesh all-rounder - first on January 23, 2019 and then on August 27, 2019 in relation to an ongoing investigation into potential corrupt conduct under the ICC code and in suspicion of involvement of an individual named Deepak Aggarwal.

Here's what the ICC found out and got confirmed from Shakib over the course of their interviews with him:

- During the Bangladesh Premier League in November 2017, Shakib was aware that his telephone number had been provided to Aggarwal by another person who was known to Shakib. Aggarwal had asked this other person to provide him with contacts of players playing in the Bangladesh Premier League.

- In mid-November 2017, at the instigation of Aggarwal, Shakib exchanged various WhatsApp messages with him in which Aggarwal sought to meet him.

- In January 2018, Shakib participated in an ODI tri-series involving Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. During this series, he and Aggarwal engaged in further WhatsApp conversations. On January 19, 2018, he received a WhatsApp message from Aggarwal congratulating him for being named man of the match in that day's game. Aggarwal followed this message with one saying, "Do we work in this or I wait till the IPL".

- The mention of "work" in the message was a reference to Shakib providing inside information to Aggarwal.

- Shakib did not report this contact from Aggarwal to the ACU or any other anti-corruption authority.

- On January 23, 2018, Shakib received another WhatsApp message from Aggarwal in which the latter made another approach to him to provide inside information, saying "Bro anything in this series?" Shakib confirmed that this message was related to Aggarwal requesting inside information in relation to the ongoing Tri-Series, which he did not report to the ACU or any other anti-corruption authority.

- On April 26, 2018, Shakib played in the IPL game between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kings XI Punjab. He received a WhatsApp message from Aggarwal that day asking him whether a particular player was going to be playing in the game that day, i.e. again asking for inside information.

- Aggarwal continued this conversation with him by talking about bitcoins, dollar accounts and asked Shakib for his dollar account details. During this conversation, Shakib told Aggarwal that he wanted to meet him "first".

- These messages on April 26, 2018 included a number of deleted messages. He confirmed that these deleted messages contained requests from Aggarwal for inside information.

- Shakib told the ICC that he had concerns over Aggarwal, feeling he was a bit "dodgy", and that, following their conversations, he had the feeling that Aggarwal was a bookie.

- He did not report any of the contact and approaches received from Aggarwal on April 26, 2018 to the ACU or any other anti-corruption authority.

© Cricbuzz

TAGS