Former Pakistan cricketer Nasir Jamshed slapped with 17-month jail sentence for spot-fixing

Former Pakistan cricketer, Nasir Jamshed has been slapped with a 17-month jail sentence for his role in a T20 spot-fixing saga which comprised bribing fellow cricketers.

Earlier, alongside Mohammed Ijaz and Yousef Anwar, the left-handed batsman was arrested in February 2019 when the National Crime Agency started investigating a probable network of spot-fixing.

It is understood that the aforementioned Anwar, who hails from Hayes, West London, was the primary instigator and was subsequently sentenced to a term of three years and four months. Ijaz, on the other hand, was handed a two year and six-month jail punishment.

At a Manchester Crown Court, Judge Richard Mansell stated that the pair was guilty of participating in ‘sophisticated and organised criminal activity’ whereas he also mentioned that Jamshed had been ‘vulnerable to succumbing to the temptation of financial reward’.

Moreover, Mansell opined that the demon of spot-fixing was growing in stature in the sub-continent considering the unregulated nature of the online betting market in countries like Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.

The conspiracy was uncovered when a police officer posed as a part of one of the betting syndicates, meaning that he was able to find evidence regarding the spot-fixing that was running rampant.

A couple of his discoveries included an instance of attempted spot-fixing in the Bangladesh Premier League in 2016 and while he also unearthed an actual fixed spot during the Pakistan Super League in 2017.

In both scenarios, an opener had been approached to play out the first couple of deliveries of overs as dot balls, with the batsman then being promised to be remunerated handsomely, an amount which approximately tallied up to $39,000.

Jamshed was one of those batsmen who had been approached as part of that particular plan, although the left-hander then took up the role of getting other cricketers on board during a PSL encounter between Islamabad United and Peshawar Zalmi.

The former opener represented Pakistan more than 60 times and was touted as a promising batsman, although there remained issues with his fitness. However, with him being indicted in such a crime, his international playing career seems to have culminated, especially considering the Pakistan Cricket Board had banned him for 10 years, back in August 2018.