LONDON: Former Essex pace bowler Mervyn Westfield has revealed his torment at spending four months in prison after being found guilty of spot-fixing.
Westfield was jailed in 2012 and banned from professional cricket for five years and club cricket for three for accepting #6,000 ($9,606, 7,124 euros) to concede more than 12 runs in an over in a 40-over match against Durham in September 2009.
The 25-year-old served his time in Belmarsh prison in south-east London and he admits the whole experience was a nightmare that has scarred him for life.
“They took me down to the room, handcuffed me and put me in the security van,” he said in a film recorded by the Professional Cricketers' Association.
“I felt so scared. You are in this little box and you can't look outside the windows of the van because they were blacked out.
“Personally I didn't know anything about Belmarsh but my solicitors ran it by me. They said it was double A category jail and the most secure jail in Europe. All the high risk people go there. I was wondering why am I going there?
“My time in Belmarsh was hell for me. They tell you what you can do and what you can't do. What time you eat and what time you go back into the room, what time you can come out for exercise, what time you have a shower. I didn't shower any more.”
With his professional career in tatters, Westfield, who pleaded guilty to a charge of accepting corrupt payments in a hearing at the Old Bailey in January 2012, now works as a shop assistant in a Tesco supermarket in east London.
“Any young cricketers out there if someone comes up to you and offers you to do match fixing just straight away say no, tell someone and walk away,” he said.
“Me agreeing to do this, I have lost the best job I ever wanted to do. Not being able to do it now is a massive slap in the face.”
He knows he made a terrible mistake, but claims he was groomed to fix from the age of 18 by Essex's Pakistan leg-spinner Danish Kaneria, who was never put on trial but banned for life by the England and Wales Cricket Board.
“Danish was a very bubbly person and everyone liked him in the dressing room. He got on well with everyone. He was a role model for most people in our team,” Westfield added.
“We were at his house and he asked if he could speak to me outside. That is when he started to first talk about it. He said it is hard for young players to get money in cricket these days. That was how the conversation started.
“They (Kaneria and his associates) said they wanted me to go for 12 runs or more in the first over I bowled. They suggested to me that a few people in the game were doing it as well.
“I felt so confused what was going on. I didn't know if I could talk to anyone or if anyone knew what it was. I didn't know if they would be in the same situation as me.
“I decided to keep it all to myself. The day came when I played against Durham. I bowled my first over, but I did not check the scoreboard to see if I went for 12 or more.”
Kaneria, who has repeatedly protested his innocence, has had two appeals against his ban and a third looking to reduce the ban rejected.
Last month he filed another appeal in a London court and vowed to carry on his fight.
