A timeline of major fixing scandals in cricket

Just as the second edition of the Pakistan Super League got underway in Dubai, allegations of players attempting to rig matches started surfacing. Geo.TV looks back at some of the major match-fixing episodes that have tainted the game of cricket:

In 2000, Hansie Cronje, the widely respected captain of South Africa’s cricket team, confessed to the game’s biggest match-fixing scandal. Several years earlier, in 1996, Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin introduced him to a bookie who offered money to throw away a match. Cronje pocketed £65,000. In the Centurion Test against England, in 2000, he received £5,000 and a leather jacket for contriving a win for England. The captain made a similar offer to cricketers Mark Boucher, Jacques Kallis and Lance Klusener before the second Test against India in Bangalore in March 2000, but they refused. He also asked Herschelle Gibbs and Henry Williams to under-perform in an ODI at Nagpur. Both were then banned for six months.

In May 2000, Saleem Malik was banned for life by Pakistan (the ban was overturned in 2008) for offering Australian trio Shane Warne, Tim May and Mark Waugh cash to underperform during their visit to Pakistan in 1995. After investigations, Wasim Akram, Mushtaq Ahmed, Waqar Younis, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Akram Raza and Saeed Anwar were also censured and fined.

In 2010, Pakistani players Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and fast bowler Mohammad Asif were banned by the international governing body of cricket for five years for their role in spot-fixing during Pakistan’s tour to England in 2010. The three men were convicted of taking bribes from a bookmaker, Mazhar Majeed. During the same year, Pakistan’s spinner Danish Kaneria and English cricketer Mervyn Westfield, while playing for Essex, were arrested following allegations of spot-fixing during a Pro40 win against Durham in 2009.

In 2015, Indian Premier League franchises Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals were suspended from the IPL for two years after being found guilty in an illegal betting and match-fixing probe.

Back in India, Rajasthan Royal’s former off spinner Ajit Chandila was sent packing for attempting to influence the results of a match during the Indian Premier League in 2013. 

Former New Zealand all-rounder Chris Cairns was placed under the scanner on similar charges and of lying under oath in relation to his participation in the controversial Indian Cricket League. He had said during a 2012 libel trial with Lalit Modi that he had never cheated at cricket. Modi had tweeted in January 2010 that he had thrown Cairns out of the IPL auction for a previous history of fixing. Cairns was however declared not guilty in 2015.

Marlon Samuels, who played for the West Indies, was found guilty of providing information to a bookmaker during a one-day series against India in 2007. He was suspended for two years for breaching rules that made it clear players couldn't "receive money, or benefit or other reward that could bring the player or the game of cricket into disrepute.” Even today, Samuels maintains his innocence.

Last year, Alviro Petersen, the former South Africa batsman, was charged with match fixing by his country’s governing body after admitting to 13 breaches of the anti-corruption code in relation to the 2015-16 domestic T20 match-fixing scandal. Also in 2016, the same board slapped a 20-year ban on Gulan Bodi from participating in any international or domestic match.

On Friday, fixing scandal shook the Pakistan Super League when Islamabad United batsmen Sharjeel Khan and Khalid Latif were suspended by the Pakistan Cricket Board on suspicion of match-fixing.

Last year, Sharjeel was the third-highest run-scorer in the PSL, with 299 runs in 11 matches. He recently made his Test debut against Australia in Sydney, where he scored 4 and 40. Overall, Sharjeel has played 25 ODIs and 15 T20Is since his international debut in December 2013. The suspension may effectively end Sharjeel's contract with English county side Leicestershire to play the Twenty20 Blast tournament later this year.

On the other hand, Latif made a comeback in the World T20 2016 after four years out of the side. Since his debut in 2008, Latif has played five ODIs and 13 T20Is. His most recent appearance for Pakistan was in the T20 series against West Indies in September last year.