Former Australia left-arm fast bowler Dirk Nannes revealed his experiences about existence of spot-fixing in Bangladesh Premier League (BPL). BPL 2017 was recently concluded with Rangpur Riders winning the final against Dhaka Dynamites, thanks to Windies batsman Chris Gayle’s unbeaten century knock including record-breaking 18 sixes. In the aftermath of allegations of fixing in Ashes 2017-18 and Big Bash League (BBL), Nannes decided to reveal the dark secrets of BPL.
Nannes told ABC Radio on December 15,
The Bangladesh Premier League, that was the interesting one. The first time there were owners who’d come along. The owners weren’t allowed on the ground, but there would be a team manager going to the owner and saying, ‘What are we doing next’, then going to the coach. The security guys were saying enough was enough. But it just kept going on. The owners were sitting there on the phone. The owners were demanding that they be in constant touch with the coach because that’s why they bought the team.
Nannes disclosed his observation too.
There were a few games I watched on television when I played in the Bangladesh Premier League, and you could hear the players on the ground yelling at the batsman because you saw it was flat-out wrong. The security guys knew it, the guys on the ground knew it, everybody knew it.
Nannes reveals how spotters operated from the stands.
The spotters were people up in the crowd. They’d have a microphone in the cuff of their shirt, and 10 mobile phones around their waist. Anytime something happened, they’d lift their sleeve and speak into the microphone, and have time to do whatever they were doing. Security couldn’t do anything except kick them out. Actually in Bangladesh, they couldn’t even do that.
The 41-year-old was doubtful of allegations of fixing and corruption in Australia as on December 14 there were claims that Ashes 2017-18 and Big Bash League (BBL) is fixed. He said,
I may be being naive, because from my opinion, everyone I played with in Australia has always gone 100 percent to win the game. You’re talking about those satellite tournaments where there’s not as much professionalism is in the game. We talk about that Sunstory, some of the Australian players are getting five million or more. They’re talking about 60 grand? Then you’ve got to split it. [Players] would never go anywhere near that.
We don’t know yet whether Nannes’ allegations are true or not. If these charges happen to be true then it will be a Black Day in the history of cricket and simultaneously raise a question mark over legitimacy of cash-rich T20 leagues across the world.
