Darren Stevens joins fight against corruption

Kent all-rounder Darren Stevens has joined cricket’s fight against corruption by warning players that they must report any suspicious behaviour immediately.

Stevens was charged with failing to report an alleged suspicious approach while he was playing in the Bangladesh Premier League two years ago.

He was cleared by a Bangladesh Cricket Board anti-corruption tribunal in February 2014 but now wants other players to learn from what he describes as a “brutal” experience which threatened his future as a professional cricketer.

Stevens, 38, has now appeared in a DVD produced by the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) which will be shown to all county players before the start of the new domestic season as part of an updated anti-corruption code.

Stevens was playing for the Dhaka Gladiators when he was asked by the owner if he would captain the side in a match against Chittagong but was then informed that Mohammad Ashraful would still “run the game on the pitch.” Stevens turned down the offer but was later contact by Alan Peacock of the ICC anti-corruption unit.

“Over the phone he said to me: ‘Can we have a meeting about Bangladesh?’ It wasn’t too bad at the start but then it got worse and worse and worse,” Stevens said.

“When I got two charges through, I wouldn’t wish it on anybody, it was brutal. The next meeting was a four-and-a-half hour meeting in London. After that it was hours and hours and hours of meetings with my lawyer going through everything, going through how the next six months up to the trial were probably going to pan out then finally getting out to Bangladesh and going through everything.

“The trial in Bangladesh was in a small room in a bank with cameras everywhere all different lawyers from all over the place in the same room you just felt claustrophobic.

“I was there for nearly four weeks, five days a week in court going through everything. Just sitting there in court was more nerve-wracking than anything I have ever done. I was on the stand for seven hours, five hours on the day and two-and-half hours on the morning. It was really hard. Cricket is my life and has been for 25-30 years. Every day that I was playing it just felt like it was going to be my last game.”

Stevens participated in a comprehensive education and awareness initiative for the PCA and hopes that talking about his experiences will help other players to appreciate the implications of failing to report any suspicious approach immediately.

He said: “It was horrific. Because I didn’t report at that time a suspicious act I have gone through hell over the last two years.

“There are so many opportunities around the world now and if Bangladesh did come back up again I would not stop anyone going and playing out there. I wouldn’t go against that I would encourage them to go and play. But I don’t want anybody to go through what I actually went through over those two years.

"In any of these tournaments anywhere around the world whatever tournament you are playing in if you do come across anything suspicious just report it immediately.”

Simultaneously, the PCA have updated the general anti-corruption tutorial which all newly registered cricketers will have to complete before playing first class cricket. The video encapsulates core rules and draws upon historic case studies to emphasise key aspects.

For more information go to http://www.thepca.co.uk/anti-corruption.html