Afghanistan Cricket Board has banned wicketkeeper-batsman Shafiqullah Shafaq from all forms of cricket for a period of six years after he accepted four charges related to breaching its anti-corruption code.
The charges relate to offences during the first edition of the Afghanistan Premier League T20 in 2018 and the 2019 Bangladesh Premier League.
The 30-year-old, who made his Afghanistan debut in 2009, has played 24 one-day internationals and 46 Twenty20 internationals.
“This is a very serious offence where a senior national player is involved in the corruption of a high-profile domestic game in APL T20 2018,” ACB’s Senior Anti-Corruption manager, Sayed Anwar Shah Quraishisaid.
“The player had also attempted but failed to get one of his teammates to engage in corruption in another high-profile game during the BPL 2019. It is an alert for all those players who think their illegal activities concerning the game of cricket will not be disclosed to the ACB’s anti-corruption unit.”
Quraishi said that without Shafaq’s admission of guilt and full cooperation throughout the investigation, the ban could have been significantly longer. Shafaq is willing to contribute to anti-corruption unit’s future integrity education programs to help younger players learn from his mistakes, the official said.
According to ACB, the following are the articles of the Anti-Corruption code that were breached by Shafaq:
Breach of Article 2.1.1 – Fixing or contriving in any way or otherwise influencing improperly, or being a party to any agreement or effort to fix or contrive in any way or otherwise influence improperly, the result, progress, conduct or any other aspect of any Domestic Match, including (without limitation) by deliberately underperforming therein.”
Breach of Article 2.1.3 – Seeking, accepting, offering or agreeing to accept any bribe or other Reward to (a) fix or to contrive in any way or otherwise to influence improperly the result, progress, conduct or any other aspect of any Domestic Match …”
Breach of Article 2.1.4 – Attempting to solicit, induce, entice, persuade, encourage or intentionally facilitate a Participant to breach Article 2.1.”
Breach of Article 2.4.4 – Failing to disclose to the Designated Anti-Corruption Official (without unnecessary delay) full details of any approaches or invitations received by a Participant to engage in Corrupt Conduct under ACB Anti-Corruption Code.”
