Petersen has once again vehemently denied his involvement in the match-fixing scandal
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Ex-South Africa opening batsman Alviro Petersen has denied his involvement in attempting to fix matches during last year’s Ram Slam T20 Challenge or accepting bribes.
Petersen was slapped with six different charges by Cricket South Africa as the board found him guilty of breaching their anti-corruption code.
In a statement through his lawyer, Robin Twaddle, Petersen revealed that he would be rejecting the plea bargain offered to him and added that he knows of another player that has not been charged by Cricket South Africa.
Twaddle wrote in the statement that Petersen was “surprised” when he found out that charges were being laid against him towards the end of July as he had been co-operating with the investigation into the scandal.
“Alviro acknowledges and admits that he played along with other persons involved in the scandal so as not to alert them to the fact that an investigation was underway,” Twaddle wrote. “Alviro was in constant contact with the investigative team from the time he reported his knowledge of the scandal until Bodi was charged and he gave information that he had received of actual plans to influence matches to the investigative unit.
“Whilst Alviro is willing to take responsibility for his actions over this period, although they were taken in good faith under the circumstances at the time, he could not reach agreement with CSA because he believes that the sanctions which would have been imposed were disproportionate to Alviro’s actions and do not take sufficient cognisance of the defenses and mitigating circumstances put forward by Alviro.”
In March, Petersen revealed that he had reported being approached to fix matches, but did not think that he was under investigation. He also claimed that he was the person who shed the light on the illegal activities being conducted by Gulam Bodi, Thami Tsolekile, Jean Symes, Ethy Mbhalati and Pumelela Matshikwe, all of whom were banned for between seven and 20 years.
Petersen has been suspended from playing all forms of cricket and has 14 days to officially respond to the charges he has been hit with by Cricket South Africa.