Pakistani cricketer sentenced 17-month jail over match fixing

Pakistan have been rocked with yet another match fixing scandal. Former international opener for Pakistan Nasir Jamshed was sentenced to 17 month jail for alleged match fixing in PSL. He was already banned for 10 years by the anti corruption unit back in 2017. Jamshed encouraged other players to fix a Pakistan Super League (PSL) game in February 2018 by getting batsmen to avoid scoring runs from certain balls in return for a share of £30,000.

Pakistani cricketers vulnerable?
Pakistani cricketers have been approached by bookies way too many times for the past many many years. Many of them have fallen prey to the scam by agreeing to fix certain moments of a game. Not only in the PSL but it is Pakistani players who were targeted during the BPL too. There are reports that suggest an attempt was made to fix a BPL game in 2016 and then an actual fix was made in PSL in 2017. Sharjeel Khan and Khalid Latif were the other cricketers deemed to have involved in fixing incident and received 5 years ban each from the anti corruption unit.

The verdict
Anwar, a bookie from Sheffield had admitted to offer bribes to players to underperform. He was sentenced for a 40 month jail period. Ijaz was another British national bookie involved in this who was handed out 30 month sentence. During the hearing in Manchester court, the judge said

By far the most insidious consequence of these offences is the undermining of public confidence in the integrity of the sporting contest, not simply in the individual match directly affected but in the game of cricket generally

History repeats itself!
This is not the first instance that a Pakistani cricketer is sentenced to jail for match fixing. This is not the first time too that a Pakistani cricketer has first denied his charges and then pleading guilty of the charges. Back in 2010 the then captain Salman Butt along with Mohammad Amir on being accused of match fixing, first denied that they didn’t do it but then accepted in a later hearing. The infamous incident rocked the cricketing world . That scandal by Butt and Amir fetched them bans and jail time too.