BOMBSHELL: BRENDAN TAYLOR IN DRUGS, MATCHFIXING SCANDAL
• star checking into rehab for cocaine addiction
Alex Ndlovu
Former Zimbabwe cricket Captain Brendan Taylor has admitted to travelling to India four years ago to meet and party with match fixers in a jaunt that involved the consumption of hard drugs and plotting to manipulate match outcomes.
Taylor, who is being investigated by the International Cricket Council for match fixing released a statement explaining how he entered the dirty cricket underworld of cricket.
Though denying to have participated in the match fixing Taylor could find himself in hot soup for reporting the incident late.
The Cricketer plying his trade for Nottinghamshire in England and retired from international cricket last year, wrote a long statement exonerating himself from the scandal after learning if a possible lengthy ban from the Cricket board.
The Cricketer said he was tricked into the matter by the Indian businessman who had invited him for a sponsorship deal for Zimbabwe and fell for it
“In late October 2019, I was approached by an Indian businessman requesting that I attend India to discuss sponsorship and and potential launch of a potential launch of a T20 competition in Zimbabwe and was advised that I would be paid $15000 to make the journey,” Taylor said in a statement earlier.
Taylor said as he was in India, the businessman took him to celebrate the deal, and they offered him cocaine.
“The following morning, the same men stormed into my hotel and showed me a video taken of me the night before doing cocaine and told me that if I did not spot fix at international matches for them, the video will be published to the public.
I was given $15000 but was told this was a ‘deposit’ for spot fixing and that an additional $20 000 would be paid once the job was completed,” said Taylor.
He claimed that he reported the matter to the ICC four months later as a way of protecting himself and his family.
Taylor said he is now going for rehabilitation on 25 January to clean his life from drugs which are taking a toll on his life.
Tylor played 35 Tests, 205 one day internationals and 45 Twenty20s for Zimbabwe before retirement.
He becomes the second former Zimbabwean captain to be implicated in such a scandal.
Last year, former Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak was banned for eight years last year after being charged with – and admitting to – five breaches of the ICC’s anti-corruption code, including accepting a payment in bitcoins from a potential corruptor.
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