The Kent all-rounder Darren Stevens has spoken for the first time about how his career was thrown into turmoil when he was charged with failing to report an approach from a would-be match-fixer.
In a video recorded for the Professional Cricketers Association, he describes going through “two years of hell” when accused of failing to contact the International Cricket Council’s anti-corruption unit while playing for Dhaka Gladiators in the Bangladesh Premier League two years ago.
A Bangladesh Cricket Board anti-corruption tribunal found him not guilty of two charges in February last year. But now Stevens, who has represented England in the Hong Kong Sixes tournament, has shared his experiences for a DVD that will be shown to all county players before the start of the upcoming season as part of an updated anti-corruption code.
The 38-year-old says he was approached by the owner of the Dhaka Gladiators, asking if he would captain the side for a match against Chittagong – but with the team still to be run on the field by the batsman Mohammad Ashraful. The Kent man declined the offer but was later contacted by Alan Peacock of the ICC’s anti-corruption unit when they investigated a wider conspiracy at the franchise.
“When I got two charges through, I wouldn’t wish it on anybody; it was brutal. The next meeting was a four-and-a-half-hour meeting in London,” explained Stevens. “After that it was hours and hours and hours of meetings with my lawyer going through everything, going through how the next six months up to the trial were probably going to pan out then finally getting out to Bangladesh and going through everything.
“The trial in Bangladesh was in a small room in a bank with cameras everywhere all different lawyers from all over the place in the same room you just felt claustrophobic.”
He added: “I was there for nearly four weeks, five days a week in court going through everything. Just sitting there in court was more nerve-racking than anything I have ever done. I was on the stand for seven hours, five hours on the day and two and a half hours on the morning. It was really hard. Cricket is my life and has been for 25-30 years. Every day that I was playing it just felt like it was going to be my last game.”
The former Bangladesh captain Ashraful, the New Zealander Lou Vincent and the Sri Lankan Kaushal Lokuarachi were banned for eight years, three years and 18 months respectively, while Dhaka’s managing director, Shihab Chowdhury, was given a 10-year suspension. Stevens and five others were cleared of wrongdoing, with the ICC expressing their disappointment at the time. They have since dropped an appeal of those verdicts with the court of arbitration for sport.
Stevens hopes his involvement will deter other players from keeping quiet, even if they decline offers from match-fixers. “It was horrific. Because I didn’t report a suspicious act at the time, I have gone through hell over the last two years,” he said. “I don’t want anybody to go through what I actually went through over those two years. In any of these tournaments, anywhere around the world, whatever tournament you are playing in if you do come across anything suspicious just report it immediately.”
