London: In a first of its kind, ex-New Zealand batsman Lou Vincent and his former Sussex county team-mate Naved were today charged by the England and Wales Cricket Board for fixing the outcome of a county match in 2011.
Vincent, who has already confessed to fixing and has been under investigation by ICC's ACSU, was charged with a total of 14 offences in relation to two county matches played under the ECB's jurisdiction in August 2011 -- a T20 match between Sussex and Lancashire and a 40-over game between Sussex and Kent.
Arif, a Pakistani living in England, was charged, under the ECB's Anti-Corruption Code, with six offences in relation to the 40 over game between Sussex and Kent in August 2011.
Both players have been provisionally suspended from all cricketing activities organised, authorised or supported by the ECB, ICC, any other National Cricket Federation and any member of any other National Cricket Federation, the ECB said in a statement.
Chris Watts, Head of ECB's Anti-Corruption unit, said, "This has been an extremely complex and lengthy investigation co-ordinated across many jurisdictions around the world. This matter is now the subject of formal legal proceedings and we will therefore make no further comment other than to re-iterate our determination to bring to account the very small minority who seek to corrupt cricket."
ECB Chief Executive David Collier added, "The ECB's ACCESS unit has worked tirelessly in conjunction with the ICC's ACSU to bring about these charges, which once again demonstrates the ECB's zero tolerance approach to corruption in our great game."
The charges, which are being issued by the ECB, rather than the ICC, came just days after Vincent had given anti-corruption detectives a wealth of detail about fixing across the cricketing world.
