My name is Vincent and I’m a cheat

Former New Zealand batsman Lou Vincent has received a life ban from cricket after dramatically admitting to fixing matches in several countries.

Vincent came clean by issuing a video statement which begins: “My name is Lou Vincent and I am a cheat.”

His admission pre-empted an announcement later in the day from the England and Wales Cricket Board, confirming Vincent had been banned for life following an investigation that crossed several countries and many different competitions.

Vincent’s international career

	M	Runs	HS	Avg	100	50
Tests	23	1,332	224	34.2	3	9
ODIs	102	2,413	178	27.1	3	11
T20I	9	174	42	19.3	0	0

He pleaded guilty to 18 match-fixing or spot-sixing charges involving matches he played for English counties Lancashire in 2008 and Durham in 2011. 

Eleven of the 18 offences carried life bans.

“I have abused my position as a professional sportsman on a number of occasions by choosing to accept money through fixing,” Vincent said. “I have shamed my country. I have shamed my sport. I have shamed those close to me. For that I am not proud.”

Vincent admitted involvement in fixing in 12 separate competitions across five countries, including in English county cricket, the Indian Cricket League and the 2012 Champions Trophy.

He has previously been banned for three years by Bangladesh for not reporting an approach to fix matches while playing in that country’s Twenty20 league.

The 35-year-old Vincent, who played 23 Tests, said his actions had “rightly caused uproar and controversy in New Zealand and around the world”.

“I lost faith in myself and the game,” he said. “I abused the game I love. I had to put things right. Speaking out. Exposing the truth. Laying bare the things I have done wrong is the only way I can find to begin to put things right.

“The time has come for me to now face them like a man and accept the consequences, whatever they may be.”