Former Pakistan batsman Nasir Jamshed charged by National Crime Agency over allegations of bribery

Former Pakistan opening batsman Nasir Jamshed was charged with two counts of bribery by the National Crime Agency on Thursday in the first instance of the British police acting on alleged cricket corruption overseas.

Jamshed, who lives in the West Midlands, and two British nationals, Yousaf Anwar and Mohammed Ijaz, will appear at Manchester Magistrates Court on Jan 15.

Jamshed, 29, was arrested in Feb 2017 after allegations of fixing in the Pakistan Super League and Bangladesh Premier League.

The International Cricket Council signed a memorandum of understanding with the NCA three years ago to allow intelligence sharing so that cricket could benefit from the greater investigatory powers of the police. Jamshed, who played 48 one-day internationals for Pakistan and two Tests from 2008-2015, and the two other men were served with written summonses on Thursday after the Crown Prosecution Service decided to press charges. They could be fined and face up to 12 months in jail if found guilty.

It will be the first cricket corruption case to reach court since Mervyn Westfield was imprisoned for four months in 2012 for spot-fixing while playing for Essex in a 40-over match. The ICC is lobbying more governments to make match fixing a criminal offence.

“Most of our efforts now are on disrupting the criminals and this means persuading governments to introduce legislation that can make attempts to fix cricket matches a criminal offence, so that those types of people are put behind bars,” said Dave Richardson, the ICC chief executive last week.

This year, the PCB banned five players for their part in the 2017 PSL fixing scandal.