PCB anti-corruption unit summons Mohammad Sami

Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) anti-corruption unit (ACU) summoned Mohammad Sami as part of their ongoing investigation into the PSL spot-fixing scandal and will assess the information gleaned from the player on Friday afternoon to determine a further plan of action.

Sami has not been charged or issued any show cause notice with PCB's General Manager Legal Salman Naseer confirming that his appearance was "nothing out of the ordinary", and that he was not being investigated for any wrongdoing.

The investigation into alleged attempts to corrupt the PSL had already led to the arrests of former Pakistan opener Nasir Jamshed in UK, who was released on bail afterwards. Sharjeel Khan and Khalid Latif were banned for five years each on various corruption charges while Mohammad Irfan and Mohammad Nawaz were banned for one year (six months suspended) and two months respectively due to a failure to report corrupt approaches. Shahzaib Hasan is currently defending himself in front of a PCB tribunal over two charges of corruption.

"The PCB's anti-corruption unit summoned Sami as a part of their investigation," Naseer said while talking to media after the meeting. "He was called for questioning and to obtain information which he has given. He is now going to play a T20 league in the UAE while Col Azam (ACU head) will be assessing the information and will determine if there is any need to investigate any further based on information we got from him.

"The meeting was nothing out of the ordinary and such summons are commonplace. It is nothing significant, it was just a notice of demand seeking some information. When a show cause notice is handed to a player, then it is something to worry about so you can relax now."

Sami, 36 and recently retained by Islamabad Untied for the third PSL season, was in Dhaka representing Rajshahi Kings in the Bangladesh Premier League. He last played for Pakistan in the World T20, where he picked up four wickets from three matches.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) in UK is simultaneously investigating the spot-fixing case and the PCB's own investigation is working closely with them. The NCA had already been helping the PCB in their probe of the PSL, providing evidence on the two central figures in the fixing saga - Jamshed and bookmaker Yousaf Anwar - who are based in England. During the PCB's tribunal proceedings against Sharjeel and Latif, NCA's operation manager Andrew Ephgrave had appeared before the three-man tribunal via Skype video call to record his statement.