ICC suspends Zimbabwe Cricket director for denying to hand over his phone

The International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Anti-Corruption and Security Unit is currently probing Zimbabwe Cricket for any corrupt activities. The officials are being investigated and a top-ranked official in Zimbabwe Cricket refused to give the investigators his cellphone on being asked for it. Once he got to know that the ACU wants to access his phone, he deleted information on it and then handed it over. However, the ICC has provisionally suspended for the breach of the Anti-Corruption Code.

Enock Ikope who held the position as director of ZC has admitted to the breach but in his defence stated that he acted in a way to protect his privacy as the phone contained his “personal, private” information. Ikope is the second victim in ZC as the ICC had previously banned Rajan Nayer who was involved in the match-fixing approach made at Zimbabwe Test captain Graeme Cremer last year.

Rajan acted as a link between the match-fixers and the cricketer. He was the one who proposed to Cremer an offer where he had to act as determined in the match against Windies. He was assured a payment of $30,000. However, the skipper didn’t just turn it down but also reported it to the ACU.

Ikope has said that he gave the ICC officials his phone after deleting only “personal, private” data on it after having a word with his lawyers. IICC in their response made it clear that as an official he was bound by its anti-corruption code and had to give them the phone without tampering with it.

The charges against Ikope

Thus he was charged under three offences – Ikope tried to obstruct or delaying an investigation without “compelling justification,” which can be corelated as “possible corrupt conduct.” Thus the suspended director will now have to be present for a hearing ahead of the ICC investigators.

He has been trying hard to dodge the bullet and in his official document submitted to the ICC claimed that anti-corruption investigators asked him for his phone when they were in Zimbabwe to interview him.

In his legal documents, Ikope claimed the ICC investigators acted unlawfully by asking him to hand over his phone when they visited Zimbabwe to interview him.

“Mr. Ikope is a ZC director and chairman of Harare Metropolitan Cricket Association and, therefore, he is bound by the ICC anti-corruption code,” the ICC said as per an AFP report.

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