Bangladesh's Shohely Akhter on Tuesday created an unwanted history by becoming the first-ever Woman cricketer to be banned by ICC for corruption charges after the 36-year-old was found guilty of attempting to fix matches during the 2023 T20 World Cup. The off-spinner was banned for five years for this offence. Shohely, who has represented Bangladesh in 13 T20Is, admitted breaching five provisions of the ICC Anti-Corruption Code during the global event that was held in South Africa two years ago. The charges were made about Akhter spot-fixing the games during some of the matches of the T20 World Cup 2023.
However, Shohely was not picked up for the T20 World Cup in 2023, as she last turned out for Bangladesh in 2022. Shohely admitted the charges of breaching Articles 2.1.1, 2.1.3, 2.1.4, 2.4.4, and 2.4.7 of the Code and accepted the five-year ban, which began on February 10, 2025.
The ACU's investigation team found out that Bangladesh's off-spinner was having a conversation on the social media app Facebook with another cricketer, identified by ICC as 'Player A', on February 14, 2023. During the investigation, the ACU found shocking evidence of Shohely trying to convince her friend and teammate to carry out fixes in future Bangladesh games. This incident by the 36-year-old was carried out before Bangladesh's game against Australia.
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Shohely Akhter finds herself embroiled in ugly controversy
According to ACU's investigation, Shohely approached the teammate and said that her 'cousin', who bets on his phone asked her whether she would get out hit wicket during the game against Australia. The off-spinner also promised to pay her teammate 2 million Bangladesh Takas, if she agreed to the fix, and the money would eventually come from her 'cousin' made by his bets.
As per ICC investigation, Shoheley also told her teammate that her 'cousin' would pay her more than 2 Million Takas if that was not enough, and promised her that the matter would not be disclosed to anyone, including deleting the text messages that they had exchanged.
Shohely's teammate not only rejected the fixing offer but was proactive enough to report the matter to ACU, providing all the voice notes from Shohely, who had deleted those recordings on her phone.
