The charges against her centre around an approach she made to a Bangladesh cricketer during the 2023 Women’s T20 World held in South Africa. Akhter, 36, was not part of the Bangladesh playing squad for that World Cup, having last played in October 2022.
The player who was approached by Akhter reported the matter to the ACU immediately, providing all the voice notes from Shohely, who had deleted those files on her devices.
When interviewed by the ACU, Shohely confirmed that she did send the voice messages to the player but initially claimed that “she only did so in order to show her friend that members of the Bangladesh team were not involved in fixing, not because she was genuinely making a corrupt approach”.
In her first interview with the ACU, Akhter showed the ACU screenshots which she claimed were a conversation between her and a friend about the “challenge”. She said that these messages had been exchanged prior to February 14, when she contacted the Bangladesh player. The ACU however confirmed that those files were created after February 14 by “reviewing underlying metadata for the messages”.
The ACU does not make public information on approaches that do not end in investigations, so it’s not known whether approaches have been made at other women’s events in the past. But this is believed to be the first time an investigation of an attempt to corrupt at a women’s event has reached a conclusion with charges. All senior international cricket is covered by the ACU.
