The International Cricket Council has suspended West Indies batter, Antiguan Devin Thomas. In a statement released earlier today.
Thomas 33, was slapped with seven charges under its anti-corruption code “contriving to fix” matches according to the ICC
He was given 14 days to respond to the charges. Thomas was on the West Indies Squad for the forthcoming three-ODI series against the UAE in Dubai.
The charges are that Thomas “playing in three franchise-based tournaments: the Lanka Premier League (LPL), the Abu Dhabi T10 and the Caribbean Premier League (CPL)”.
The ICC said in its media statement released Tuesday that the Antiguan batsman “breached the anti-corruption codes at all three tournaments and its anti-corruption unit had been authorized by all three boards in question – Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) and Cricket West Indies (CWI) – to conduct the investigation on their behalf”
Meanwhile, Cricket West Indies said it would fully support the ACU investigation and that it “was resolute about denouncing corruption in cricket”
It is alleged that Thomas tried to “fix a match” in 2021 when he played Kandy Warriors during the LPL but he only played one game in that edition
Essentially, in that tournament alone, Thomas faced four charges under the SLC anti-corruption code on his conduct which are “contriving or being party to an agreement to fix or attempt to fix, contrive or influence improperly the result, progress, conduct or other aspects of matches”, “failing to disclose […] full details of an approach” to the ACU, “failing or refusing, without compelling justification, to cooperate” in an ACU investigation, and “obstructing or delaying” the investigation by “concealing, tampering with or destroying any documentation or other information”.
He also faces another charge of failing to disclose details of an “approach made to indulge in corrupt conduct during the 2021 edition of Abu Dhabi T10, when he was a part of the Pune Devils team”.
This sounds horrible. I just cannot believe that he could do something like this and expect to get away with it.
How would he kno what to do? How would he kno who to pitch this plan? How could he, singlehandedly, pull this off? How could he have done the same thing with three different teams? This all sounds like a “witch hunt”.
Until he responds, I refuse to believe the accusations as they are presented to the public.