Lonwabo Tsotsobe apologises to cricket lovers all over the world

Lonwabo Tsotsobe has apologised “to cricket lovers all over the world” after Cricket South Africa (CSA) banned him for eight years on Tuesday for several breaches of its Anti-Corruption Code for Personnel. CSA took the decision after a probe result and Tsotsobe himself admitting to being guilty.

He accepted a charge of failing to report an approach made for fixing Ram Slam game in 2015. Along with that two charges have been levied for not informing the Anti-Corruption Officer of the CSA once he was offered to fix the match. Tsotsobe is not the first player to face such ban for breaching the Anti Corruption Code. CSA, in 2016, had banned Gulam Bodi for 20 years after he admitted to charges of attempting to fix matches in the T20 challenge series in 2015.

“I wish to apologise to cricket lovers all over the world. I was, at the time, in a very vulnerable financial state and this dilemma too easily persuaded me to participate in spot-fixing,” the 33-year-old bowler said. “There are no words to describe the regret I have in relation to my actions and I hope that the cricket world would consider my apology and understand my deepest feeling of remorse,” Tsotsobe added.

Lonwabo Tsotsobe’s International career

Now that the bowler from Port Elizabeth has been banned for eight years, he is unlikely to make any sorts of comeback in the International arena. He played 5 Tests, 61 ODIs and T20 Internationals for South Africa. Tsotsobe scalped 121 wickets across formats and was highly rated when he made his debut at the highest level.

Tsotsobe last played a competitive game way back in 2015 and was out of the national team since 2014. He was considered as the main bowler for Proteas in ODIs when he first broke into the international set up but was dropped later due to poor performances.