Bangladesh’s cricket authorities yesterday partially lifted a ban on former captain Mohammad Ashraful, allowing him to play in select domestic competitions, officials said.
Ashraful was initially banned for eight years in 2014 after he tearfully confessed on national TV to helping fix matches in the scandal-hit Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).
The Twenty20 tournament was eventually left suspended in the wake of the match-fixing controversy before being resumed last year with six new franchises.
A local appeals panel in September 2014 cut Ashraful’s ban to five years, including a two-year suspended sentence, meaning he can return to competitive cricket this month.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and the International Cricket Council (ICC) had lodged an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland, against his reduced ban in October 2014, but later withdrew it.
“Mr Ashraful is eligible to play domestic cricket from the 13th August 2016. However, he will be ineligible to play international cricket or the BPL [until 2018],” said Yasin Patel, a British lawyer who represented Ashraful during the trial.
BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury said they were now waiting for an ICC response to determine which domestic competitions Ashraful would be allowed to play.
“Ashraful’s ban will be lifted on Aug. 13,” Chowdhury told reporters on Friday. “We have now asked for a clarification from the ICC, clearly specifying which competitions he will be allowed to play.”
An ICC spokesman declined to comment.
Ashraful, Test cricket’s youngest century-maker, made his debut at the national level at the age of 17.
He has played 61 Tests, 177 one-day internationals and 23 Twenty20 international matches.
ICC anti-corruption investigators discovered the fixing scam after being asked by Bangladesh authorities to monitor the lucrative Twenty20 tournament.
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