In a significant development on Wednesday (March 6), the world cricket governing body International Cricket Council (ICC) has banned former Zimbabwe Cricket Director Knock Ikope for ten years following the completion of the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit’s investigation. Thus, the world board’s tribunal has found Ikope guilty for three offences under the ICC Anti-Corruption Code. The ACU has swung into the action following enough evidence.
The recent hearing from the ICC Tribunal revealed Ikope had breached the counts; Article 2.4.6, 2.4.7 and 2.4.7 respectively.
To shed light on the first breach, Ikope has failed to cooperate with the investigation committee. Owing to the documentation procedure the Article 2.4.6 of ICC’s Code of Conduct is also applicable to those who fail to hand over the cell phone. It is further relevant to the required documents as per the requirement to the ACU.
Meanwhile, the ICC General Manager for the ACU, Alex Marshall, has hailed the decision. He added those who try to corrupt the game would face the stern action.
“We welcome this decision and the substantial sanction imposed on Mr Ikope which reflects the gravity of the offences. Non-cooperation and obstruction of our investigations by participants to the Code are simply not acceptable and I hope this and other recent sanctions sends out a clear message to anyone involved in the sport,” Mashall said.
In a similar way, he has failed to initiate the request in January 2018. It followed with the hindrance during the investigation as per Article 2.4.7.
Also, in February 2018, ICC’s ACU saw Ikope deleting mobile phone date. Subsequently, that’s deemed as a corrupt practice as per the Article 2.4.7.
So much so, while taking each count into consideration, Ikope faced a five-year ban from the ICC Tribunal for the first two offences on the basis of ineligibility, before the third count of Article will result in overall 10-year year ban.
Earlier, Rajan Nayer, who worked as the Treasurer for the Harare Metropolitan Cricket Association (HMCA), was banned for 20 years for all cricket-related activities. ICC charged him for breaching different counts.
Besides, Marshall has lauded the efforts of Graeme Cremer for his cooperation throughout the whole process. Graeme has denied the offer from Nayer before reporting to the ICC’s ACU. He has also thanked ZC board for unconditional support in
“Once again we must thank an international captain, Graeme Cremer, for his absolute professionalism in recognizing the initial approach by Mr Nayer, rejecting and then reporting it. We are thankful to him and to Zimbabwe Cricket for all the help during the investigations,”
Interestingly, the investigation leads to the Ikope who has a link with the HMCA. Also, this further results in pushing him to cooperate with ICC’s ACU during the inquiry.