Mervyn Simon Westfield (born 5 May 1988 in

Romford Romford is a large town in east London and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Havering. It is located northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Historically, Romfo ...

, Greater London) is an English

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

er. He is a right-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball, ball with a cricket bat, bat to score runs (cricket), runs and prevent the dismissal (cricket), loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since Septembe ...

and a right-arm

medium-fast Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is one of two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket, the other being spin bowling. Practitioners of pace bowling are usually known as ''fast'' bowlers, ''quicks'', or ''pacemen''. T ...

bowler who until September 2010 played for

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

. In January 2012, he became the first English cricketer to be convicted of

spot-fixing Spot-fixing is illegal activity in a sport in which a specific aspect of a game, unrelated to the final result but upon which a betting market exists, is fixed in an attempt to ensure a certain result in a proposition bet. Examples include somet ...

, after admitting accepting £6,000 in exchange for bowling an over that was supposed to concede 12 runs.

Essex career

Westfield played for the first time for Essex in the 2005

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

against

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

. He made one appearance in the Second XI Championship before the end of the season, and in 2006, played three matches as Essex finished third in Division Two of the 2006 County Championship. In May 2010 he was arrested by Essex police in connection with "match irregularities" in the 2009 domestic season, along with team-mate

Danish Kaneria Danish Parabha Shankar Kaneria ( ur, ; ), (born 16 December 1980) is a Pakistani former cricketer who played for the Pakistan national cricket team between 2000 and 2010. A right-arm leg spinner known for his well-disguised googly. He is fourth ...

. The investigations were believed to focus on a NatWest Pro40 match in September 2009 against

, which Essex won. From 2006 onward, Westfield was an occasional player in the Essex side. During the

2010 County Championship The 2010 County Championship season, known as the LV County Championship for sponsorship reasons, was the 111th County Championship season. It was contested through two divisions: Division One and Division Two. Each team played all the others in ...

, Westfield was released by Essex after struggling to find a regular place in the first team. Westfield has played as an upper-middle order batsman and as a tail-ender. He held a first-class bowling average of 37.81 by the time of his release by Essex.

Spot-fixing charges

Following his arrest on suspicion of a

irregularity, it was announced on 15 September 2010 by the

Crown Prosecution Service The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions. The main responsibilities of the CPS are to provide legal advi ...

, that Westfield was to be formally charged with conspiracy to defraud over claims he deliberately bowled wides as part of a spot-fixing scam. Antony Swift, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said Westfield would appear at City of London Magistrates' on 23 September 2010. His Essex teammate

was released without charge following the investigation. Westfield was convicted on 12 January 2012 and was given a four-month prison sentence. On 22 June 2012, Kaneria was banned for life from playing cricket in England and Wales by the

England and Wales Cricket Board The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is the national governing body of cricket in England and Wales. It was formed on 1 January 1997 as a single governing body to combine the roles formerly fulfilled by the Test and County Cricket Board, ...

(ECB), for his involvement in the scandal. In February 2016, Westfield was given special dispensation by the ECB to allow him to play in 2nd XI matches and

minor counties The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

cricket. He later played three

MCCA Knockout Trophy The National Counties Cricket Association Knockout Cup was started in 1983 as a knockout one-day competition for the National Counties in English cricket. At first it was known as the ''English Industrial Estates Cup'', before being called the ...

matches for Suffolk during the early part of the 2016 season. In October 2018, Kaneria admitted to his involvement in 2009 spot-fixing scandal.

References

External links

Mervyn Westfield
at CricketArchive

at Cricinfo {{DEFAULTSORT:Westfield, Mervyn 1988 births Living people People from Romford English cricketers Essex cricketers Suffolk cricketers Cricketers banned for corruption