West Indies’ Devon Thomas faces a five year ban in all forms of cricket
West Indies batter Devon Thomas has been banned by the International Cricket Council from all formats of cricket for five years after breaching seven counts of the anti-corruption codes of Sri Lanka Cricket, the Emirates Cricket Board, and his country’s Caribbean Premier League.
Thomas was suspended in May 2023 on account of seven corruption charges including fixing charges. Devon Thomas accepted the same seven charges. Four of which were from the SLC anti-corruption code, one from the ECB code, and two from the CPL code.
The most serious of the charges was of attempting to fix a match back in 2021 Lanka Premier League when he played just one game for Kandy Warriors.
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The four charges of the SLC were of “contriving or being party to an agreement to fix or attempt to fix, contrive or influence improperly the result, progress, conduct or other aspects of matches”, “failing to disclose […] full details of an approach” to the ACU, “failing or refusing, without compelling justification, to cooperate” in an ACU investigation, and “obstructing or delaying” the investigation by “concealing, tampering with or destroying any documentation or other information”.
The single charge under the ECB code was because he was unable to bring forward details of offers made to indulge in match-fixing or spot-fixing during the Abu Dhabi T10 2021 edition when he played for the Pune Devils franchise.
The remaining two charges are from when he represented St Kitts and Nevis Patriots and Barbados Rivals in the 2022 and 2021 editions of CPL respectively. One charge is failing to disclose full information of an approach and the second is failing to report the “receipt of any gift, payment, hospitality or benefit (a) that he knew or should have known was made in order to procure a breach of the CPL Code, or (b) could have brought the player or the game of cricket into disrepute”.
Alex Marshall who is International Cricket Council’s General Manager of the Integrity Unit has said in the press release that Devon has played both international and domestic cricket and has attempted numerous anti-corruption education sessions and he knew what his obligations were under the anti-corruption codes but failed to meet the criteria in three different instances.
He added that this ban of five years should send a strong message to players and those who want to corrupt them that they will be dealt with firmly and strictly.
