Agarwal was also the corrupter who contacted Shakib Al Hasan
‘Mr. X’, who gave Heath Streak two bitcoins while presenting the former Zimbabwe captain with an expensive phone for his wife, is said to be Indian businessman Deepak Agarwal, who was banned from the last year until 2022 by the ICC for violating various anti-corruption codes.
On Wednesday, the ICC banned Streak for eight years after being convicted of five counts, including not disclosing his approaches, facilitating contact with various players and accepting gifts from a briber. The ICC described the briber as being from India and only identified him as “Mr. X”.
Agarwal, who is said to be based in Delhi and is in his thirties, was also the corrupter who approached former Bangladesh captain Shakib al Hasan, who was banned by the ICC after being convicted of three counts, including understood not to have reported. Indian businessman approach.
In December 2019, Agarwal himself was indicted by the ICC’s anti-corruption unit for being a “participant” in corrupt activities after being extensively probed by the ACU for over a year. Speaking to Agarwal in the days leading up to Christmas in 2018, the ICC ACU team discovered that Agarwal was “engaged” in WhatsApp conversations with an anonymous person the ICC at the time referred to as “Mr. X” .
This “Mr. X ”was facing several allegations which the ACU had investigated. He was a person Agarwal was to introduce to people, including players, with the intention of implicating them in corruption and obtaining information from them. ESPNcricinfo understands that the “Mr X” in this context was Streak.
While banning it, the ICC said that Agarwal was found guilty of “obstructing or delaying” an investigation, including “concealing, falsifying or destroying any documentation or other information that may be relevant to the investigation. such investigation and / or which may be evidence or may lead to the discovery of evidence of corrupt conduct ”under the ACU Code.
During the investigation, Agarwal handed over one of his phones from which ICC’s ACU team found incriminating evidence, via WhatsApp conversations, of the corrupter attempting to influence Streak.
“During these conversations, Mr. Agarwal did instruct Mr. X on what to say to the ACU on certain issues to make sure they were both telling the same story (a story which was sometimes not true) and, therefore, misled or obstructed the ACU’s investigation, “the ICC said in a statement last April. Mr. X also asked Mr. Agarwal for clarification on the interview process and what Mr. Agarwal had told ACU on certain points. Indeed, Mr. Agarwal and Mr. X arranged together to mislead the ACU investigation and not tell the truth in their answers. “
Today, the ICC revealed that prior to meeting the ACU team in January 2019, Streak “had engaged in a series of WhatsApp messages with Mr. X [Agarwal]”, well aware that” Mr. X himself had recently been “surveyed.” Prior to his interview with ACU, Mr. Streak engaged in a series of WhatsApp messages with Mr. X, knowing that Mr. X himself had recently been interviewed by ACU. These WhatsApp conversations between Mr. X and Mr. Streak were related to what Mr. X had told ACU in his interviews.
“In those conversations, Mr. Streak admitted that he and Mr. X had indeed discussed what Mr. Streak should say in the interviews to make sure that they were both telling the same story (a story that sometimes didn’t ‘was not true) and therefore he admitted this behavior could be interpreted as misleading or hampering the ACU’s investigation. Mr. Streak also sought clarification from Mr. X about the interview process and what that Mr. X had told ACU on certain issues. “