Nine players hit with corruption charges in Bangladesh Premier League

• Seven players charged with spot-fixing or match-fixing

• Charges relate to 'alleged conspiracy' at Dhaka Gladiators

Nine players have been charged with corruption offences during this year's Bangladesh Premier League. The news was confirmed on Tuesday in a joint statement by the Bangladesh Cricket Board and theInternational Cricket Council, whose anti-corruption and security unit (Acsu) oversaw the Twenty20 tournament.

The charges relate to "an alleged conspiracy within the Dhaka Gladiators franchise", with three distinct offences ranging from match-fixing to spot-fixing and failure to report illegal approaches.

Seven of the individuals, who have not been named, are charged with one of the two types of fixing and have been provisionally suspended by the BCB and ICC. The tariff for their offences ranges from a minimum five-year ban up to life.

The remaining two are charged with failure to report an approach, which carries an upper limit of a five-year ban.

All nine have 14 days to consider the charges before entering a plea.

The ICC chief executive, David Richardson, praised the work of Acsu in uncovering the alleged conspiracy and also revealed other players had been forthcoming in providing evidence.

"Considering the limited resources available to the Acsu and the limitations that apply to its ability to uncover sufficient evidence to disrupt conspiracies of this kind, I am pleased that this investigation has led us to this outcome," he said.

"Whilst we have charged some individuals with failing to report corrupt approaches that were made to them, it is important to stress that this investigation has also been built upon, among other things, evidence gathered from other individuals who not only rejected corrupt approaches made to them, but then did what they were supposed to do, and reported them to the Acsu. AP