Nazmul Hasan, the President of the Bangladesh Cricket Board, has stated that every team taking part in the BPL (Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League 2019-20), will have an ACU (Anti-Corruption Unit) officer attached to it. The BPL is slated to start from 11th December, 2019. According to Hasan, the BCB is prepared to spend additional funds from its own resources in order to safeguard the premier BPL tournament from any corruption. It also warned of adopting a zero tolerance policy in case any individual cricketer or team was found guilty on this count.
BPL was previously riddled with match-fixing allegations where Mohammad Ashraful was banned and Shakib Al Hasan was thereafter suspended by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for failing to disclose/report corrupt approaches made to him. Prior to the start of the upcoming BPL edition, BCB has also banned the logistics manager Shakeel Abedin, for Chittagong Vikings, for his corrupt approaches in the earlier season.
Two cricketers from the Chittagong Vikings had complained to the ACU unit of the BCB on this matter. When their allegations were found to be true, Abedin was suspended and will not be involved in the upcoming BPL season anymore which will commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of the nation’s founding father. Hasan has stated that the activities of the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) will only intensify after recent incidents. He added that the BCB will be bearing the additional expenditure since an individual assigned to a particular team will naturally require accommodation, food and salary.
However, the BCB has agreed to this since it is operating on the ACU’s advice according to him. He also stated that agents are not recruited in most cases but appointed. The ACU unit member usually comes from the nation’s Army. Every team will also receive training related to corruption and other issues. The sponsors of teams will also be adhering to the requisite code of conduct in this case and the BCB will not interfere in operational proceedings and does not wish to know what the Anti-Corruption Unit is actually doing. It will give the ACU total freedom to combat corruption independently.