{"id":199234,"date":"2022-01-25T16:35:33","date_gmt":"2022-01-26T00:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=199234"},"modified":"2022-01-26T12:11:06","modified_gmt":"2022-01-26T20:11:06","slug":"cricketer-brendan-taylor-in-spot-fixing-blackmail-after-snorting-cocaine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cricketer-brendan-taylor-in-spot-fixing-blackmail-after-snorting-cocaine\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricketer Brendan Taylor in Spot-Fixing Blackmail Plot After Snorting Cocaine with Gang"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former captain of the Zimbabwe cricket team took to social media this week to detail how he was blackmailed by a gambling syndicate<\/a> to manipulate a match after its members videoed him snorting cocaine.<\/p>\n

\"Brendan
Brendan Taylor, above, was one of Zimbabwe\u2019s greatest batsmen before he was stung and blackmailed by a criminal gang in India. (Image: ZimLive)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Brendan Taylor, 35, did not go through with the group\u2019s demands to \u201cspot-fix<\/a>\u201d in international cricket matches. But his story offers a stark warning about how na\u00efve athletes can be coerced into corruption by criminal gangs.<\/p>\n

Spot-fixing describes the manipulation not of the final result, but of the minutiae of a match. In cricket, this could be the number of \u201cno balls,\u201d for example, the game\u2019s equivalent of a \u201cball\u201d in baseball.<\/p>\n

The rise of internet betting has enabled gamblers to place bets on these small details, or spots, within a game.<\/p>\n

The Hook<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Taylor says he was approached by an Indian \u201cbusinessman\u201d in October 2019. The unnamed figure wanted to discuss a potential sponsorship deal and the possible establishment of a T20 league (a quick-cricket format) in Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n

The man told Taylor he would be paid US$15,000 to travel to India to discuss the deal. Taylor said he was \u201cwary\u201d of the approach.<\/p>\n

\n

But at the time, he hadn\u2019t been paid for six months by Zimbabwe Cricket, the domestic governing body. The Zimbabwe team was a force in international cricket in the 1980s and 1990s. But it has been in crisis since the mid-2000s after some players openly opposed the regime of late dictator Robert Mugabe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Following a government backlash, many of its finest players left the game, while Mugabe\u2019s economic mismanagement gradually crippled the nation\u2019s economy. Players have been sporadically fighting Zimbabwe Cricket, which critics say is a tool of the government, over politics and payments ever since.<\/p>\n

And there are few prettier sights to a match-fixing syndicate than a badly remunerated top-level sportsman.<\/p>\n

The Set-Up<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Taylor made the trip, but his apprehensions were allayed when discussions with the businessman and his associates were restricted to pre-agreed topics of commercial partnerships and the T20 league.<\/p>\n

On the last night, he was taken for a celebratory dinner, which involved cocaine use, and Taylor partook.<\/p>\n

The Sting<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The next morning, he says the same men stormed into his hotel room and showed him a video taken of him snorting cocaine. They said the video would be made public unless he agreed to spot fix.<\/p>\n

I was cornered. And with six of these individuals in my hotel room, I was scared for my own safety,\u201d<\/strong> Taylor wrote. \u201cI’d fallen for it. I’d willingly walked into a situation that has changed my life forever.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Taylor said he accepted the $15,000, which he was told was now a \u201cdeposit\u201d for spot-fixing. He would be paid a further $20,000 once he had finished the job. He says he accepted the money so he could get out of India.<\/p>\n

“I would like to place on record that I have never been involved in any form of match-fixing. I may be many things, but I am not a cheat,” <\/strong>added Taylor, who announced his retirement from international cricket last year.<\/p>\n

The Shut-Out<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Four months after the incident, he reported it to the International Cricket Council (ICC), the sport\u2019s world governing body.<\/p>\n

Despite choosing not to comply with the syndicate’s demands, he still faces sanctions because the ICC\u2019s anti-corruption code states all match-fixing approaches must be reported “without unnecessary delay.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Taylor says the incident has severely impacted his mental and physical health, resulting in a doctor prescribing the anti-psychotic drug amitriptyline. He is seeking help for issues with substance abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be a better version of myself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Read Taylor’s full Twitter statement here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The former captain of the Zimbabwe cricket team took to social media this week to detail how he was blackmailed by a gambling syndicate to manipulate a match after its members videoed him snorting cocaine. Brendan Taylor, 35, did not go through with the group\u2019s demands to \u201cspot-fix\u201d in international cricket matches. But his story […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":199235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCricketer Brendan Taylor in Spot-Fixing Blackmail After Snorting Cocaine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Brendan Taylor, former Zimbabwe cricket captain, admits he was blackmailed into spot-fixing after he was videoed snorting cocaine.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cricketer-brendan-taylor-in-spot-fixing-blackmail-after-snorting-cocaine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cricketer Brendan Taylor in Spot-Fixing Blackmail After Snorting Cocaine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Brendan Taylor, former Zimbabwe cricket captain, admits he was blackmailed into spot-fixing after he was videoed snorting cocaine.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cricketer-brendan-taylor-in-spot-fixing-blackmail-after-snorting-cocaine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-26T00:35:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-26T20:11:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/brendan-taylor.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cricketer-brendan-taylor-in-spot-fixing-blackmail-after-snorting-cocaine\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cricketer-brendan-taylor-in-spot-fixing-blackmail-after-snorting-cocaine\/\",\"name\":\"Cricketer Brendan Taylor in Spot-Fixing Blackmail After Snorting Cocaine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cricketer-brendan-taylor-in-spot-fixing-blackmail-after-snorting-cocaine\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cricketer-brendan-taylor-in-spot-fixing-blackmail-after-snorting-cocaine\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/brendan-taylor.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-26T00:35:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-26T20:11:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Brendan Taylor, former Zimbabwe cricket captain, admits he was blackmailed into spot-fixing after he was videoed snorting cocaine.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cricketer-brendan-taylor-in-spot-fixing-blackmail-after-snorting-cocaine\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cricketer-brendan-taylor-in-spot-fixing-blackmail-after-snorting-cocaine\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cricketer-brendan-taylor-in-spot-fixing-blackmail-after-snorting-cocaine\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/brendan-taylor.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/brendan-taylor.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":768,\"caption\":\"Brendan Taylor, above, was one of Zimbabwe\u2019s greatest batsmen before he was stung and blackmailed by a criminal gang in India. 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