Shohely's challenge to Akash, or really a proposal of fixing

The women cricket in Bangladesh may be in infancy as even their presence in the World Cup fails to create much hype but a recent allegation of match fixing and an unusual story of the accused shook the cricketing world.

Shohely Akhter is currently out of the national team but she is recently accused of proposing one of the national team players to spot fix. However, according to Shohely she merely challenged her teammate as part of proving the honesty of the latter following an altercation with an acquaintance whom she knew through Facebook.

It is alleged that Shohely, who made her last international appearance for Bangladesh in Asia Cup T20 at Sylhet last year, proposed Lata Mandal to spot fix. The offer was a sum of Tk 2-2.5 million if Lata gets out stumping or hit wicket.

Lata informed about the offer to team management as soon as she got it and the management conveyed it to anti-corruption unit of ICC. Shohely declined to comment as the matter is under investigation.

Lata did not play the match against Australia and she was stumped for 11 off 13 balls during Bangladesh’s opening game against Sri Lanka.

“ACSU contacted me. I was told not to talk about it with anybody or media so I don’t want to disclose anything now,” said Shohely to Prothom Alo.

However, a source close to the cricketer claims Shohely offered Lata as part of accomplishing a challenge. According to the person Shohely came to know a young man named Akash during the Asia Cup last October and the latter said to her that he thinks many players of Bangladesh Women Team are involved with fixing. This is the reason they often lose matches from winning positions. Shohely protested that Bangladeshi girls are not like that. Akash asked how she is so sure and during this dispute the idea of the challenge popped up and the source said the idea was pitched by Akash.

It was known that Shohely had sent a voice message to Lata to be dismissed hit wicket or stumped intentionally before the Australia match.

The source also claimed that Akash described Shohely how to put the offer forward to Lata. Shohely had to tell that one of her brothers bet and offer is good during World Cup. The offer for Lata was…if she agrees then confirms it to Shohely.

Later, as Lata declined the offer Shohely informed the matter to Akash. Then Akash told her that his idea was wrong and Bangladeshi girls are not involved with fixing.

The 34-year old Shohely, who made her debut both in ODI and T20I in 2013, has so far played two ODIs and five T20Is within 2014. After a hiatus of eight years she made a return to national team for the World Cup Qualifiers back in 2022. She played five matches in qualifiers and three more matches in Asia Cup.

Obviously that much exposure in international arena is enough to comprehend the anti-corruption laws of ICC. Even then, how could she send such an offer to a fellow player during World Cup as she was almost certain that Lata would inform ACSU about the matter!

It was learnt Shohely is now regretting about her ‘stupidity’. She comprehends that the voice message she sent to Lata will be considered as an offer of fixing by ACSU. But she is hoping the screenshots of her chats with Akash will reveal her true motives. She believes anyone will understand she did it just to challenge Akash. She also told to her close mates that Aksah told her he is a graduate student and lives at Badda in Dhaka. Shohely claims she does not know anything else about him.

This report appeared in the print and online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Syed Faiz Ahmed