Verdict at May end?
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB)'s anti-corruption tribunal is likely to give the long-pending final judgement in the case of match-fixing during the second edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) in the last week of this month.
Everybody was curious about why it was taking so long; sources said that the tribunal members could not find time to sit together and put their heads together because of a few members' other engagements.
The BCB had promised a quick execution of trial when the International Cricket Council, (ICC) on August 13 last year, charged seven individuals with match-fixing in the BPL and two of failing to report corruption; a revelation which had rocked the country's cricket community.
After much dilly-dallying, BCB on November 9, 2013 finally appointed Justice Mohammad Abdur Rashid as chairman of its disciplinary panel, from which a three-member anti-corruption tribunal headed by former Supreme Court Judge Justice Khademul Islam was formed.
The hearing into the fixing scandal had begun on January 19 this year and on February 27 bowlers Mosharraf Hossain, Mahbubul Alam and former national player Mohammad Rafique were cleared of all corruption charges. Also cleared of the charges were English cricketer Darren Stevens, Gladiators owner Salim Chowdhury, CEO Gaurav Rawat who had pleaded not guilty.
The fate of the other individuals accused -- namely Bangladesh's Mohammad Ashraful and Kaushal Lokuarachchi of Sri Lanka -- who had already confessed to their crime, is likely to be known in the last week of this month when the final judgement will be handed over to the board.
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