The International Cricket Council has taken a very strict action against a USA cricketer and banned him from all forms of cricket for 8 years.
The cricketer is Bodugum Akhilesh Reddy. The 26-year-old has been found guilty of breaking three rules of the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Code. The case is related to the Abu Dhabi T10 league in 2025 which was held in the UAE.
According to his Major League Cricket team Washington Freedom, Bodugum Akhilesh Reddy was born and brought up in Hyderabad, India. He was once part of Hyderabad’s Vijay Hazare Trophy squad and was also a net bowler for IPL team Sunrisers Hyderabad. He is a right-handed batsman and an off-spin bowler. He played 4 international matches for USA and took 1 wicket. His last T20I was against Canada in 2025.
The ICC found him guilty on three charges. First, he tried to fix matches in the Abu Dhabi T10 2025 by trying to influence the result and performance. Second, he tried to force and convince another player to get involved in fixing. And third, he tried to stop the investigation by deleting important data and messages from his mobile phone.
Because of this, he has been banned from any cricket-related activity at any level. The ban started from 21st November 2025, when he was first provisionally suspended, and will continue till 21st November 2033. By that time he will be more than 34 years old.
What exactly happened?
The ICC tribunal found that the incident happened on the morning of 19th November 2025, in the team hotel, just a few hours before his team Aspin Stallions’ first match in the Abu Dhabi T10.
According to the tribunal, Bodugum Akhilesh Reddy went to a teammate, who has been named as ‘Player A’ to keep his identity secret. He told the teammate to intentionally give away runs while bowling and also claimed that this order had come from a senior member of the team leadership. But Player A immediately said no to this offer. He informed his agent and within just 30 minutes, he reported the whole matter to the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit.
The tribunal also noticed a suspicious thing. Player A was first included in the playing 11 but was removed from the squad in less than 30 minutes. The tribunal felt that this happened because Bodugum Akhilesh Reddy told the team management that Player A refused to cooperate. However, the tribunal did not blame any other person in the team.
During the investigation, officials found that Bodugum Akhilesh Reddy had deleted his WhatsApp chats and call history with Player A before giving his phone to the ICC. He accepted that he deleted the data but said it was his normal habit of cleaning his phone. The tribunal did not believe his excuse and said that he deleted the data only to hide the evidence and to stop the investigation.
This is really not a good example for the game of cricket.
