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Former South African bowler Pumelela Matshikwe has been reprimanded with a six-year jail sentence after remaining suspended for five years because of his involvement in the 2015 match-fixing scandal during the Ram Slam T20 tournament in South Africa. He was given a 10-year suspension from all cricket and is now the second player after Gulam Bodi to be convicted under the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities (PRECCA) Act.
This act came into effect in 2004, for addressing the aftermath of the Hansie Cronje match-fixing saga at the turn of the millennium where Cronje was charged for fixing South Africa's ODIs against India. Matshikwe was condemned after a plea agreement with a criminal court in Pretoria on Friday.
Matshikwe was sentenced for the following breaches:
- Receiving an incentive or payment to fix, contrive, or influence improperly a match or matches in the 2015 Ram Slam tournament
- Making a payment that would bring the sport of cricket into disrepute
- Failing to disclose payment to the CSA anti-corruption officer, which they knew or ought to have known was given to them for a breach of the Code
- Failing to disclose details of an approach to engaging in corrupt conduct and failing to disclose full details of matters evidencing a breach of the code by another participant.
Other players who have been punished in connection with the 2015 case are Bodi, Thami Tsolekile, Jean Symes, Ethy Mbhalati and Alviro Petersen. Tsolekile was a former South Africa Test player and received a 12-year ban for "contriving to fix a match or matches in the 2015 Ram Slam; failing to disclose to the CSA Anti-Corruption Officer the full details of an approach to engage in corrupt conduct".
Symes was barred for seven years, while Mbhalati was punished with a ten-year ban. The best player of this lot Petersen who featured in 36 Tests and 21 T20Is was banned for two years by CSA after admitting to 13 breaches of the anti-corruption code.
Matshikwe has played 77 first-class matches, where he has 178 wickets under his belt at an average of 30.01. He also played 57 List A matches and 24 T20 games between 2009 to 2016.