CAPE TOWN: Former Test bowler Lonwabo Tsotsobe has been banned for eight years, taking to seven the number of South African players kicked out of the game for their part in a 2015 match-fixing scandal, Cricket South Africa said on Tuesday.

The 33-year-old, who played in five Tests and 61 One-day Internationals, was charged in April with contriving to fix or improperly influence matches in the South Africa domestic Twenty20 Series and seeking to accept, or agreeing to accept, a bribe.

Tsotsobe admitted one charge of contriving to fix a match and nine separate charges of failing to co-operate properly with various investigations.

“I was, at the time, in a very vulnerable financial state and this dilemma too easily persuaded me to participate in spot fixing,” he said in a statement.

“There are no words to describe the regret I have in relation to my actions and I hope that the cricket world could consider my apology and understand my deepest feeling of remorse.

Gulam Bodi, Jean Symes, Pumi Matshikwe, Ethy Mbhalati, Thami Tsolekile and Alviro Petersen were previously banned for between two and 20 years for their part in the scandal, although CSA has long held that no matches were actually fixed.

The investigation is now closed.

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2017