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The Bangladesh Cricket Board’s newly appointed anti-corruption consultant Alex Marshall stated on Tuesday that the corruptors could be chased out of the country, sending a clear message that sports in Bangladesh would be clean.

The former head of the ICC’s anti-corruption unit has recently been roped in by the BCB for a one-year contract. Marshall had a meeting with the members of the board, including the president, Aminul Islam, at a city hotel in Dhaka on Tuesday.Ìý

After the meeting, the former English police officer briefed the media on how he was planning to fight corruption and other threats in the country's cricket.Ìý

‘The reason I'm here is to work with the president and the board to design an integrity unit which protects the sport from all the different threats,’ said Marshall.

‘Bangladesh cricket has been at the top table of cricket for a quarter of a century now.

‘This is the right moment to make sure that whatever event is being watched, the fans believe the sport they are seeing on the field and the players – the women and the men who play for Bangladesh – are correctly protected from all the threats out there,’ he added.Ìý

Marshall mentioned the threat of doping but pointed to corruptors as the biggest threat.Ìý

He said, ‘The biggest threat in cricket is from corruptors all over the world looking for an opportunity to find a player who they can bribe to underperform, and we will make sure that the Bangladesh players, the women and the men who play for the country, are properly protected.’Ìý

He also gave an idea on how he would want to work on it.Ìý

‘We will design an integrity unit, and the aim of that is to make sure everyone is educated, they understand what the threat looks like and what they need to look out for, that the team itself has the security and the protection around them and that we make sure the corruptors are chased away,’ he said.Ìý

‘We don't want them in Bangladesh; they can be chased out of the country. The integrity unit will send a strong message that this sport will be clean in Bangladesh, and the Board and the President are supporting that vision,’ Marshall added.Ìý

Understandably, one of Marshall's main focuses would lie on the BPL, the only franchise-based T20 league in the country.Ìý

In the past, Marshall himself pointed to leagues like the BPL as a threat, as he thought they were not well run.Ìý

Ìý‘The big threat in cricket is always anywhere in the world to a franchise league that can look vulnerable. So we need to make sure that the BPL does not look like a vulnerable league,’ he said.

‘So the way the event is run, the way that their finances work, the way that team ownership is decided – all those things need to be high level and professional and need to be protected.Ìý

‘Anywhere in the world, a franchise league that is not seen as highly professional and well protected will at some point become vulnerable to corruptors trying to find their way in,’ he added.Ìý

Marshall stated that his job was to protect the league from that.Ìý

‘It has happened in many, many countries, and there have definitely been issues that have happened within the BPL, and we need to make sure that a new integrity unit offers that protection,’ he said.Ìý

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