BCB to appeal against corruption tribunal's clean chit

The BCB has decided not to involve in the National Cricket League Dhaka Gladiators' Mosharraf Hossain and Mahbubul Alam as it plans to appeal against the Bangladesh Premier League corruption tribunal's decision to hand the two a clean chit. The duo were among the nine cricketers accused of match-fixing in the second edition of the BPL.

"The board is planning to appeal," Jalal Yunus, the BCB media committee chairman, told Dhaka Tribune. "It might happen in a day or two. They won't be able to play the national league for that."

The players' lawyer, Nawroz MR Chowdhury told the same newspaper that the BCB can appeal but it won't affect the judgment. "Here they (BCB) don't have the option to appeal. Even if the tribunal had made the full judgment, the appeal couldn't have stayed the order. According to the tribunal bylaws, an appeal can be made but it will have no affect on the judgment," Nawroz said.

The sixth and seventh rounds of the NCL begin on April 12.

The incident of alleged match and spot-fixing came to light in May 2013 when BCB president Nazmul Hassan confirmed that a Bangladesh player had been questioned by the ICC. Mohammad Ashraful was the first player to admit to being involved in corruption, after which formal charges were laid against nine individuals, including six players from the Dhaka Gladiators franchise.

The BCB decided "not to involve" Ashraful in any kind of cricket until investigations into the matter were complete, and appointed a disciplinary panel, from which an anti-corruption tribunal was formed to probe the issue. The tribunal held a preliminary hearing in November last year and the full hearing of the tribunal began in January.

One of the owners of Dhaka Gladiators, Shihab Jishan Chowdury, was found guilty of "being party to an effort to fix" a match in the BPL 2013. Six others were discharged as not guilty by the tribunal, but both the ICC and the BCB had said in February they were "disappointed" by the outcome and may yet consider an appeal.