DHAKA, Bangladesh (Reuters) – Former Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful will be eligible to return to competitive cricket in 2016 after an appeal panel on Monday reduced an eight-year ban for match-fixing to five years with two suspended.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board disciplinary panel hearing decided to set aside the original sanction and replace it with a five-year ban starting August 2013.

The suspension of the last two years is subject to the 30-year-old player’s participation in an anti-corruption education and training programme to be organised by BCB and/or the International Cricket Council.

The panel said Ashraful would therefore be entitled to return to cricket on or around August 13, 2016 “upon production of a certificate of good conduct from ICC”.

The player told ESPNcricinfo.com that he was satisfied with the outcome.

“I had wanted a reduction in the ban similar to what has been given to me,” he said. “I’m very happy, now I can play (sooner).

“I should have been punished, yes, but I think this is good for me.” talks

Ashraful was handed his original eight-year ban after he was found guilty of involvement in match-fixing in the 2013 domestic Twenty20 competition.

The right-handed batsman, who had played 61 Tests and 177 one-day internationals since his 2001 debut, confessed to match-fixing after being quizzed by ICC anti-corruption officials in June 2013.

Monday’s hearing also reduced to one year an 18-month ban on Sri Lanka’s Kaushal Lokuarachchi, who had failed to inform the authorities that they had been approached to fix matches while playing in the BPL.

The tribunal upheld a 10-year ban on the managing director of BPL champions Dhaka Gladiators, Shihab Jishan Chowdury, for his part in the match-fixing scandal but quashed a fine.