Former South African player Gulam Bodi charged for match-fixing

Former South Africa international Gulam Bodi has been charged with attempting to fix matches in the country’s domestic Twenty20 competition, the country's cricket authorities said on Thursday.

Bodi, who played two one-day internationals and one Twenty20 match for the national side in 2007, has been charged with 'contriving to fix', or otherwise improperly influence aspects of the 2015 competition”, they said.

Cricket South Africa (CSA) said in December it were investigating an "intermediary" for betting syndicates and had laid charges.

The 37-year-old, who was born in India but emigrated to South Africa as a teenager, did not feature in the tournament as a player, having last turned out in domestic cricket for the Highveld Lions in January 2015.

When contacted for comment by Netwerk24, Bodi replied: “No, absolutely no comment, sorry.”

Cricket South Africa later confirmed that Bodi was the intermediary charged under its anti-corruption code.

In a statement it said: “Bodi has been charged with contriving to fix, or otherwise improperly influence aspects of the 2015 Ram Slam T20 Challenge Series.

“Following our investigations and due process, we have reached a point where we can confirm that Mr Bodi is the intermediary who was charged by CSA in early December 2015 under the CSA anti-corruption code.

“Mr Bodi is presently co-operating with the CSA anti-corruption officials. We now await his response to the charges and the matter will take its course in accordance with the process outlined in the Code.”

Speaking in December, Haroon Lorgat, Cricket South Africa’s chief executive had said, “Our attitude to corruption will always be one of zero tolerance and we are confident that we have the necessary structures in place to effectively deal with any corrupt activity.

“We will relentlessly pursue under our code and the law of the land any persons we believe to be involved in corrupting the game and, with assistance from the police, we will also seek criminal prosecution.”

The Ram Slam tournament was televised in India where, despite gambling being illegal, bookmaking is a billion-dollar black market industry.