Lou Vincent and Naved Arif to be charged by ECB for match-fixing

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/may/22/lou-vicent-naved-arif-ecb-charged-sussex-kent

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Lou Vincent is to be charged with fixing a county match later on Thursday, along with his former Sussex team-mate Naved Arif, but by the England and Wales Cricket Board rather than the International Cricket Council’s anti-corruption and security unit.

Both players would face life bans if they are found guilty of accepting money to throw the Clydesdale Bank 40-over match between Sussex and Kent at Hove in August 2011, which Kent won by 14 runs.

It has emerged in the last week that Vincent, the former New Zealand international, has been co-operating with the anti-corruption unit, which is led by the former chief inspector of constabulary Ronnie Flanagan.

The ECB’s anti-corruption unit, headed by the former Metropolitan police detective Chris Watts, reopened an investigation into the Sussex-Kent game, in August 2012, after it had been cleared by the ACSU, and has now charged both players.

It was also the ECB who first charged Danish Kaneria, the former Pakistan leg-spinner, for his involvement in spot-fixing in April 2012, leading to a life ban, after his former Essex team-mate Mervyn Westfield had served a jail sentence.

Vincent joined Sussex in 2011 after a stint with Lancashire in 2008, when two more of his appearances are under investigation, and played 10 one-day matches in addition to a single first-class fixture.

Arif, a Pakistani left-arm seamer who is 32, joined Sussex in 2011 after playing league cricket for Rawtenstall and also played for them in 2012, and has continued to play league cricket in Staffordshire.

He conceded 41 runs in six wicketless overs, including two wides, in the Kent game, and Vincent was run out for one off seven balls.