BCB collaborating with ICC in BPL corruption crackdown

Alex Marshall, once with ICC and UK police, will train the BCB’s anti-corruption team

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has moved to involve the International Cricket Council (ICC) in its efforts to address mounting allegations of corruption in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).

For the next edition of the tournament, the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit will be officially engaged, the BCB announced after a recent board meeting.

The board’s decision follows widespread allegations of misconduct during and after several BPL seasons, including the most recent one.

While many of these claims never reached the stage of formal proof, they have repeatedly cast a shadow over the tournament’s integrity -- raising persistent doubts about the effectiveness of the BCB’s own anti-corruption mechanisms.

In response, the BCB has not only brought in the ICC for direct oversight in the next BPL, but also appointed Alex Marshall, former general manager of the ICC’s Integrity Unit and a long-serving UK police officer, as a consultant.

He will work to “strengthen” the board’s internal anti-corruption unit.

“You’ll be pleased to know that the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit will work with us in the next BPL. This has been approved,” BCB Director Iftekhar Rahman said after the meeting.

The board, however, is not planning to depend on the ICC every time.

To build long-term internal capacity, it is seeking to sharpen the skills of its own anti-corruption officials -- a reason behind Marshall’s appointment, it said.