Nine dropped cricketers not accused in Marshall report

The nine cricketers dropped from the player draft for the 12th edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) were not accused of any wrongdoing, Alex Marshall said on Saturday.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) had appointed Marshall, former general manager of the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU), to lead an independent investigation into corruption allegations in the BPL. The committee submitted a nearly 900-page report to the BCB.

Based on the report, nine players were excluded from the draft: Anamul Haque, Shafiul Islam, Sunzamul Islam and Mizanur Rahman of Durbar Rajshahi; Mosaddek Hossain and Alauddin Babu of Dhaka Capitals; and Ariful Haque and Mohammad Nihaduzzaman of Sylhet Strikers.

However, Marshall said none of the nine had been charged. He said the committee had recommended that they not be invited to the previous BPL season based on negative information uncovered during the investigation.

“None of them are currently banned from playing cricket. None of them have been accused, so they are free to play,” he told reporters.

The former general manager said the recommendation had covered more than nine players and was specifically for the 12th edition of the BPL.

He also revealed that new and significant negative information had emerged about several local and overseas players shortly before the draft, prompting the BPL Governing Council to keep some of them out of the tournament.

Mosaddek later returned to international cricket for Bangladesh and was named Player of the Series for his all-round performance in the ODI series against Australia, raising questions over the findings of Marshall’s report.

The report was submitted to the BCB on 30 October, 2025, with Marshall explaining some of its findings at Saturday’s press conference, almost 11 months later.

The investigation committee also questioned the effectiveness of the BCB’s then anti-corruption unit. Marshall described the report as primarily a fact-finding exercise that identified weaknesses in the board’s integrity and anti-corruption systems and areas for improvement.

“There was an observation that the BCB’s anti-corruption unit at that time was not operating effectively enough,” Marshall added.