Asia Cup 2018 : Mohammad Shahzad approached for spot fixing in APL 2018

Afghanistan batsman Mohammad Shahzad has become the latest high-profile subject of a spot-fixing approach. As per Shahzad, he was approached to underperform in the inaugural edition of the Afghanistan Premier League T20 to be played in Sharjah from October 5 to 23 and he clarifies that approach was made during the Asia Cup 2018.

After the Asia Cup, Shahzad is scheduled to play for the Paktia franchise in APL 2018 starting next week along with former internationals like Brendon McCullum, Shahid Afridi and Chris Gayle.

The wicketkeeper batsman immediately reported the approach to the team management, and then all necessary protocols were followed in raising the matter with the ICC's anti-corruption unit, which was later confirmed by ICC.

Confirming the approach an ICC official said, "There was an approach made during the Asia Cup, but for their own T20 league, The matter was reported through the right channels on Saturday and is being looked into by the anti-corruption unit."

In a media event in Dubai on Monday, Alex Marshall, head of the ICC's anti-corruption unit, confirmed the reports and shared few details with media. While addressing Media he said, "There have been 32 investigations in the last 12 months, eight involve players as suspects," Marshall said at the ICC's headquarters. "Five of them involve administrators or non-playing personnel. Three of these individuals have been charged. Five internationals captains have also reported receiving approaches to spot-fix."

As per Cricinfo, the ICC anti-corruption head underlined the need to work closely with all boards to prevent corruption and of the need to keep educating players about the many methods fixing syndicates use to spread their influence across the newly formed T20 leagues.

"We try to link up with the intelligence. We look at what we know about this event, are we providing anti-corruption cover, are we already there or is it being provided by another party? Are there any other strands of intelligence we have about that tournament. Is there anything about financial backers or the people surrounding the tournament are suspicious?

We never launch off an investigation because something looks odd on the field or we get a single anonymous report. We get quite a lot of single, anonymous reports. We start putting the pieces together and there's sufficient reason to think on reasonable grounds to start investigating this, then we take it on. We do find a lot of corrupters who move between formats of international and domestic, because they're looking for the opportunity and vulnerability."