Former Zimbabwe cricket captain Brendan Taylor admitted Monday he took money from match-fixers who tried to blackmail him into manipulating international games with a secret video of him using cocaine on a visit to India in 2019.
Taylor said that the International Cricket Council was about to impose a "multi-year ban" on him and he had decided to release his statement in advance of that.
Even though he took US$15,000 from the fixers, Taylor said he never fixed or manipulated games. The 35-year-old batsman retired from international cricket late last year.
Taylor said he was invited to India to discuss a sponsorship opportunity in October 2019. At a dinner with businessmen, he was offered cocaine and "foolishly took the bait."
"The following morning, the same men entered my hotel room to show me a video taken of me the night before doing cocaine and told me that if I did not partake in spot fixing at international matches, the video would be released to the public," Taylor said.