Pakistan's Nasir Jamshed Jailed For 17 Months After Admitting Bribery Charges

Disgraced former Pakistan batsman Nasir Jamshed has been sentenced to 17 months in prison at Manchester Crown Court, after pleading guilty in December to a conspiracy to bribe fellow cricketers in the Pakistan Super League (PSL). In 2018, the 33-year old was slapped with a ten-year ban by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and had been anticipating a custodial sentence after changing his plea on the opening day of his trial.

In December, he and his two co-defendants, Yousef Anwar, 36, and Mohammed Ijaz, 34, had pleaded guilty to bribery charges that were levied on him in December 2018 by British’s National Crime Agency (NCA). In January last year, they had pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to offer bribes to professional cricketers.

The trio was accused of offering bribes to cricketers to fix games during PSL. Anwar and Ijaz were also accused of conspiring to bribe players taking part in the Bangladesh Premier League in late 2016. Anwar was sentenced to 40 months in prison and Ijaz 30 months.

Nasir Jamshed had played a big role in fixing the PSL fixture between Islamabad United and Peshawar Zalmi in Dubai on February 9. He had persuaded Sharjeel Khan to play out two made-to-order dot-balls off the first two balls of Islamabad’s second over. Sharjeel was later banned for five years by the PCB, as was Khalid Latif, another player whom Jamshed had recruited for a subsequent fix.

The court also heard how Jamshed himself had been the intended fixer during the BPL contests, when he and Sharjeel were both playing for Rangpur Riders.

However, the first attempt was called off when Jamshed did not give all the pre-arranged signals – which included the use of certain coloured batting grips. And a second attempt against Barisal Bulls was cancelled after he was dropped for what was the final match of the season.

Advice from Samara:

After the prison sentence was announced, Jamshed’s wife, Samara Afzal expressed her disappointment over the entire episode and also warned other cricketers not to be tempted by corruption in a sport.

“Nasir could have had a bright future had he worked hard and been committed to the sport than gave him so much, but he took a short cut and lost everything, his career, status, respect and freedom,” she wrote according to ESPNCricinfo. “He would have got UK nationality and played county cricket, and he threw his chance away.

“He would do anything to turn the clock back and not lose everything, especially his daughter who he is very close to, but it’s too late for him. I hope all cricketers look at his example as a deterrent against corruption,” she added.

Nasir Jamshed represented Pakistan between 2008 and 2015 but could never settle down in the playing eleven. Overall, he scored close to 2,000 runs in 2 Tests, 48 ODIs and 18 T20Is.

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