Former South Africa Take a look at cricketers Thami Tsolekile and Lonwabo Tsotsobe have been arrested over long-running match-fixing allegations and charged with corruption, leaving them going through the opportunity of jail sentences if they’re convicted.
They have been each beforehand given lengthy bans from cricket together with different gamers.
Tsolekile and Tsotsobe have been arrested final month over a match-fixing scandal referring to a home match in South Africa in 2015, police mentioned on Saturday. They’ve been charged with 5 counts beneath South Africa’s anti-corruption regulation after showing in a specialised industrial crimes courtroom in Pretoria on Friday.
The anti-corruption regulation permits for jail sentences of as much as 18 years in some circumstances, though two different gamers who beforehand pleaded responsible in relation to the identical scandal acquired suspended jail sentences.
Tsolekile, who’s 44, performed three Exams for South Africa 20 years in the past. He was banned from all cricket for 12 years in 2016. Tsotsobe, a 40-year-old former seam bowler who performed for South Africa in Exams, one-day internationals and Twenty20 video games from 2009-14, was banned for eight years in 2017.
One other domestic-level cricketer, Ethy Mbhalati, additionally was arrested final month and is going through corruption fees alongside Tsolekile and Tsotsobe.
An investigation by cricket authorities into the 2015 scandal in South Africa’s Ram Slam T20 competitors alleged gamers have been approached by Gulam Bodi, a former South Africa worldwide batsman, to repair matches or elements of matches on behalf of Indian bookmakers. Bodi was sentenced to 5 years in jail for making an attempt to get the gamers to repair matches.
Investigators mentioned they believed the gamers mentioned the opportunity of fixing matches however no fixing occurred.
Two different gamers have been arrested in 2021 and 2022, respectively. They acquired suspended jail sentences of between 4 and 6 years after pleading responsible.
A particular police unit had been investigating Tsolekile and Tsotsobe since 2016.