Pretoria - Former Proteas international Gulam Bodi has been sentenced to five
years in prison for his role in the spot-fixing saga in the Ram Slam T20 tournament.
He pleaded guilty to eight charges of corruption after being charged under the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act, which makes provision for the prosecution of corrupt behaviour within sporting events.
The sentence was passed in the Commercial Crimes Court in Pretoria on Friday.
Bodi was the central figure in an futile attempt to fix parts of matches in the 2015/16 Ram Slam. It also involved six other players, including former international Alviro Petersen, a teammate of Bodi’s at the Lions franchise, when the scheme was concocted.
A big-hitting, left-handed batsman who played two one-day internationals and one T20 international for South Africa in 2007, Bodi was the middle-man between an Indian betting syndicate and the players.
After a Cricket South Africa investigation in 2016, Bodi was banned from all aspects of the game for 20 years under CSA’s Anti-Corruption Code. His fellow conspirators, Petersen, Thami Tsolekile and Lonwabo Tsotsobe, who Test cricket for the Proteas, Jean Symes, Pumi Matshikwe and Ethy Mbhalati were banned from the sport for periods ranging between two and 12 years.
Taking to Twitter yesterday, Petersen, who was in court at the time the sentence was handed down, wrote: “Good day for cricket!!!” However that tweet was met with derision by former England international, Kevin Pietersen, who tweeted back: “You’ve really tweeted this when YOU were banned for two years for the part YOU played?!? Wow!”
Petersen claimed he didn’t take any money from Bodi but admitted to four counts of failing to disclose the details of approaches; four counts of not providing sufficient information to investigators and one count of concealing or destroying evidence.