West Indies batter Devon Thomas guilty of match-fixing, banned for five years

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has banned West Indies player Devon Thomas for five years for his involvement in match-fixing. The ban is backdated to May last year, with the final 18 months of the ban being termed as suspended.

The West Indies batter admitted to breaching seven counts of the anti-corruption codes of Sri Lanka Cricket, the Emirates Cricket Board and the Caribbean Premier League.

The 34-year old player was charged with breaches in attempting to fix the results of matches, obstructing investigations by concealing, tampering and destroying evidence. The ban is backdated to May 2023, the date when he was provisionally suspended for the wrong doings.

Thomas was guilty of fixing matches in the Lanka Premier League in Sri Lanka in 2021, for which he was charged a total of four counts. Two counts relate to matches in the Caribbean Premier League in the same year, and one count is for fixing a match in the T10 Cricket League in the United Arab Emirates. The 34-year-old batter committed all the offences in 2021.

ICC general manager Alex Marshall said the five-year ban is an apt punishment and said the world governing body will not tolerate any corruption in the sport. “This ban is apt and should send a strong message to players and corrupters that attempts to corrupt our sport will be dealt with firmly. Having played both international and professional domestic and franchise cricket, Devon attended numerous anti-corruption education sessions. He therefore knew what his obligations were under the anti-corruption codes but failed to meet these obligations across three different franchise leagues,” Marshall said, in a statement released by the ICC.

Devon Thomas played 21 one-day internationals for West Indies. His last appearance in an ODI was against Australia in Melbourne in 2013. He played in 12 T20 matches for West Indies from 2009-22, with his last being against New Zealand at Kingston in 2022. He only played one Test for his country, against Australia at Adelaide in December 2022.