The International Cricket Council (ICC) has banned Shakib Al Hasan from all forms of cricket for two years as he failed to report approaches from one Deepak Aggarwal, a suspected bookie who was seeking inside information.
The 32-year-old was found to have failed to report two approaches he received during a tri-series between Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in January 2018, and one related to a 2018 Indian Premier League (IPL) match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kings XI Punjab.
The premier all-rounder — ranked third in Tests, first in ODIs and second in T20Is in the ICC rankings — has accepted the three charges of breaching the Anti-Corruption Code.
According to the ICC's full reasoned decision available on its website, Shakib confirmed the following facts during his two rounds of interviews with the ACU in January and August this year:
>> In November 2017, Shakib was a member of Dhaka Dynamites in Bangladesh Premier League and played between Nov 4 and Dec 12 of that year.
>> Shakib was aware that his telephone number had been provided to Deepak Aggarwal by another person who was known to him. The bookie had asked this other person to provide him with contacts for players playing in the Bangladesh Premier League, according to Shakib's statement.
>> In mid-November 2017, at the instigation of Deepak, the all-rounder exchanged various WhatsApp messages with the bookie in which Depaak sought to meet him.
>> In January 2018, Shakib was a member of Bangladesh team for the Tri-Series between Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. During this series, Shakib and Deepak, too, engaged in further WhatsApp conversations.
>> On Jan 19, Shakib received a WhatsApp message from Deepak congratulating him for being named man of the match in that day’s game. Deepak followed this message with a message saying “do we work in this or I wait till the IPL”. The reference to “work” in this message was a reference to Shakib providing Inside Information to Deepak. Shakib did not report this contact form Aggarwal to the ACU or any other anti-corruption authority.
>> On Jan 23, 2018, Shakib received another WhatsApp message from Deepak in which the bookie made another approach to him to provide him with Inside Information, saying “Bro anything in this series?” Shakib confirmed (the ACU) that this message related to Deepak's request to him to provide the booked with Inside Information in relation to the ongoing Tri-Series. The all-rounder did not report this request for Inside Information from Deepak to the ACU or any other anti-corruption authority.
>> On Apr 26, 2018, Shakib played for the Sunrisers Hyderabad in its IPL match against Kings XI Punjab. Shakib received a WhatsApp message from Deepak 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. Deepak continued this conversation with him by talking about bitcoins, dollar accounts and asked Shakib for his dollar account details. During this conversation, Shakib told Deepak that he wanted to meet him “first”.
>> These messages on Apr 26, 2018, included a number of deleted messages. Shakib confirmed that these deleted messages contained requests from Deepak for inside information.Shakib confirmed that he had concerns over Deepak, feeling he was a bit “dodgy”, and that, following their conversations, he had the feeling that Deepak was a bookie. The all-rounder did not report any of the contacts and approaches received from Deepak on Apr 26, 2018, to the ACU or any other anti-corruption authority.
During the interviews, Shakib, however, told the ACU that he did not accept or act upon any of the approaches he received from Deepak, in particular, he did not provide him with any of the information requested.
Nor did he accept or receive any money or another reward from Deepak, Shakib told the ACU.
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