Whats Next for Steve Massiah?

Join the forum discussion on this post

Steve Massiah was arrested, charged  and released a month ago by US Federal authorities in connection with a $50 million mortgage fraud case.  He is one of three men accused of defrauding banks and mortgages companies by falsifying documents.   Massiah involvement in the scheme was through now infamous NY Relator Ed Ahmad.  Ahmad is now facing 30 years in prison for 11 counts against him.  Since then Libertycricket has learned that Massiah’s passport has been confiscated  while the trial is ongoing.

Many in the New York and USA cricket community are speculating on what Massiah’s involvement is and weather he will go to prison or now.  As far as Libertycricket is concerned Steve Massiah as with anyone else in American is innocent until proven guilty in the court of law.  With that said lets allow the judicial process to decide on his fate.

As far as cricket is concerned, however, there is a deeper discussion at hand.  Massiah 32, is the  current Captain of the USA team and while the investigation continues, it is hard to see how USACA can continue to have him hold such a prestigious position with all the scrutiny around him.  Having said that Massiah is still one of the best batsman in the US and the team will be surely miss his presence if he is not available for the 2012 season.  There are two questions we need to think about:

1)So will USACA keep Massiah as Captain of USA?

2)Will USACA even pick Massiah while the investigation is ongoing.

 

On a related noted here is an interesting list of Cricketers having problems with the law.  All Credit Below to Wikipedia

1955

• Leslie Hylton is hanged for shooting his wife.^[1]

[edit] 1967

• Roy Gilchrist got involved in an argument with his wife during which time he branded her face with a hot iron. He was found guilty and sentenced to three months probation.^[2]

[edit] 1986

• Ian Botham was suspended for two months after admitting to possessing and smoking cannabis.^[3][4]

[edit] 1988

• Navjot Singh Sidhu beat a man to death following a road rage incident. In 2006 he was sentenced to three years in prison for ‘culpable homicide not amounting to murder’.^[5] However the Supreme Court of India stayed his conviction in January 2007.^[6]
• Ian Botham is charged in Australia with assaulting a passenger on the flight to Perth. He was bailed and fined $800 (₤350).^[7]

[edit] 1993

• Wasim Akram, Mushtaq Ahmed and Waqar Younis are arrested in Grenada and charged with possession of marijuana. The charges were later dropped.^[8]

[edit] 1994

• Stephen Fleming, Matthew Hart and Dion Nash are fined and suspended after admitting to smoking cannabis at a barbecue. Dion Nash was subsequently referred to as “Dion Hash” in the British press.^[4]
• Phil Tufnell, while on tour in Australia, punched a hotel bellboy who he had argued with over the colour of the towels in his room, and then proceeded to trash the room until he was detained by hotel security and police. Tufnell spent the night in jail.

[edit] 1996

• Geoffrey Boycott assaults a 45 year old woman in France for which he received a three month suspended sentence in 1998.^[9]

[edit] 1997

• Phil Tufnell is handed an 18 month suspended sentence and fined ₤1000 for failing to turn up for a random drug test after a Middlesex Championship match.^[4]
• Retired Warwickshire allrounder Paul Smith admitted to long usage of cocaine and was controversially banned for 2 years.^[4]
• Keith Piper tested positive for cannabis. He was banned for one match and fined ₤500.^[4]

[edit] 1998

• Saqlain Mushtaq and Mohammad Akram were alleged to have been involved in a bar brawl during Pakistan’s tour of South Africa.^[10]

[edit] 1999

• Shivnarine Chanderpaul shot a policeman in Georgetown with a revolver after he mistook him for a burglar. The officer received a wound on his left hand, but Chanderpaul was not charged due to the mistake.^[11]
• Peter Roebuck is accused of caning three South African teenage cricketers who he had been coaching. In 2001 he was found guilty and received a 12 month suspended sentence.^[12]
• Makhaya Ntini is arrested and charged with rape, but he is acquitted on appeal.^[13]
• Ricky Ponting was involved in a nightclub brawl at Kings Cross for which he received a $5,000 fine, a five match suspension and a black eye.^[14]

[edit] 2001

• Herschelle Gibbs, Andre Nel, Justin Kemp, Paul Adams and Roger Telemachus are fined and reprimanded for smoking marijuana during South Africa’s tour of the West Indies.^[15]

[edit] 2003

• Shane Warne is sent home after failing an earlier drug test, just prior to the start of the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Warne was sent home after a drug test during the one-day series in Australia earlier in the year returned a positive result for a banned diuretic.^[4]
• Kaushal Lokuarachchi crashes his car into a bus stand at Colombo, killing a woman and critically injuring her son.^[16]
• Shafiuddin Ahmed accused of setting his girlfriend on fire for which she received burns to 70% of her body.^[17]
• Andre Nel was arrested and charged with drink driving after being pulled over by police in Australia.^[18]

[edit] 2004

• Runako Morton is arrested after stabbing his cousin in the chest during a family dispute. He escaped with just a reprimand.^[19]

[edit] 2005

• Suresh Perera is arrested for assault following a brawl outside his home in Sri Lanka. Two men were hospitalized.^[20]
• An unnamed Pakistani cricketer is accused of raping a woman in their team hotel during a tour of Australia.^[21]
• Dermot Reeve resigned from his role as Channel 4 commentator after he admits to a cocaine use problem, also confessing that he was high when commentating during the England v New Zealand test at Lord’s in 2004.^[4]
• Keith Piper, who failed a drug test in 1997, failed his second drug test and was banned for the remainder of the season.^[4]

[edit] 2006

• Mark Vermeulen is charged with arson after the Zimbabwean Cricket Academy and boardroom are destroyed by fire.^[22] He was acquitted of the charges.
• Yuvraj Singh is alleged to have assaulted a guest at his birthday party.^[23]
• News of the World tabloid newspaper published pictures of Shane Warne standing in his underpants with a pair of 25-year-old models, as well as explicit text messages allegedly from Warne.^[24]

[edit] 2007

• Moin Khan, the former Pakistan captain and wicketkeeper, was freed on bail after a brief detention over a complaint that he beat up his wife at home. His wife says that he was drunk while beating her. She also said that Moin repeatedly kept on accusing of her of adultery. Unable to talk properly due to the bruises she suffered, she told that this was not the first time Moin had physically abused her. “He usually beats me whenever he is drunk but last night it just got too much,” said the battered woman who further revealed that her left shoulder joint was dislocated during the beating.^[25][26][27]
• Warrington Phillip, a former spin bowler for the Leeward Islands cricket team is arrested and charged with murdering his wife.^[28] He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
• Liam Plunkett crashed his car into another and is charged with drink driving. He was banned from driving for 20 months.^[29]
• Maninder Singh was arrested for possession of 1.5 grams of cocaine. ^[30]
• Narsingh Deonarine was detained in England for the alleged rape of a 16 year old girl, however he was later released.^[31]
• Shoaib Akhtar is sent home from the Twenty20 World Cup after striking teammate Mohammad Asif with a cricket bat.^[32]
• Mehrab Hossain is arrested after his ex wife accused him of assaulting her.^[33]
• Warne and his wife Simone got back together in early 2007 only for Simone to return to Australia from England after Warne had accidentally sent a text message meant for another woman to her phone.^[34][35]
• South African cricketers Vernon Philander and Charl Willoughby as well as other Cape Cobras teammates were caught up in an armed robbery at a fast food outlet in Johannesburg. The players were unharmed.^[36]

[edit] 2008

• Xavier Marshall and Tonito Willett tested positive in the drug tests conducted during a two-week camp in Antigua in August. They were among the 32 players named in a provisional Stanford Superstars squad to face England in the Stanford 20/20 for 20, a winner-take-all US$20 million match on November 1.^[37] The Stanford Superstars went on to win against England which meant both of these players missed out on US$1 million as a result.