CASE STUDY 3: Domestic Premier Leagues

What Happened? In February 2017, the second edition of the Pakistani Super League (PSL) was held in the UAE. Following the opening match on 9 February 2017 the PSL was the subject of a highly publicised corruption incident. It is reported that Sharjeel Khan and Khalid Latif met with a fixer and agreed to conduct a spot-fix in the opening match of the PSL. Based on the fixing plan, Sharjeel, who was previously described as an aggressive batsman who scores quickly, agreed to play two dot balls after the first over in the match.

Although Latif did not play in that game, he was later charged with luring Sharjeel fix and not reporting the matter to the PCB ACU. As reported in the media, this matter was not only the subject of a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) investigation, but aspects of it formed part of a police investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA) in the UK.

Consequences: To date five Pakistan players have been implicated and charged by PCB as a result of the PSL investigation. Latif was found guilty of six charges levelled by the PCB ACU. He was banned from playing any form of cricket or getting involved with the game in any capacity for 5 years, in addition to being fined PKR 1 million. Khan was also banned for five years, with half of this suspended. Mohammad Irfan and Mohammad Nawaz were also banned by the PCB for 6months and 2months respectively, for failing to report corrupt approaches. Both have since returned to domestic cricket.