Mervyn Simon Westfield (born 5 May 1988 in

Romford Romford is a large List of places in London, town in east London, east London, England, located northeast of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Havering, the town is one of the major Metropolitan centres of London, metropolitan centr ...

Greater London Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a Ceremonial count ...

) is an English

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

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 a type of bowling in cricket, in which the ball is delivered at high speed. The fastest bowlers bowl the ball at over . Practitioners of fast bowling are known as fast bowlers or quicks. Also ...

bowler who until September 2010 played for

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

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

spot-fixing Spot-fixing is an 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 som ...

, 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, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Rothesay County Championship, is the only domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. Established in 1890, it is organised by the England and Wales Cri ...

against

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city in north east England **County Durham, a ceremonial county which includes Durham *Durham, North Carolina, a city in North Carolina, United States Durham may also refer to: Places ...

. 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 (; ), (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 who could bowl a googly, Kaneria played 61 Test match ...

. 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 adv ...

, 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, aka ECB, is the Sports governing body, 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 ...

(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 Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

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

References

External links

Mervyn Westfield
at CricketArchive

at

Cricinfo ESPNcricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a Sports journalism, sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including Liveblogging, liveblogs and sco ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Westfield, Mervyn 1988 births Living people People from Romford Cricketers from the London Borough of Havering English cricketers Essex cricketers Suffolk cricketers Cricketers banned for corruption