Shafiqullah Shafiq, Afghanistan wicket-keeper batsman, has been handed a six-year ban from all forms of cricket for flouting anti-corruption codes.
The charges against Shafiq are related to his iniquitous activities during the first edition of the Afghanistan Premier League in 2018.
The 30-year-old has also attempted to lure a teammate from Sylhet Thunder franchise to involve in corruption during the 2019-20 season of Bangladesh Premier League.
It has been reported that he has admitted all the four charges pressed against him in front of an anti-corruption tribunal.
The Afghanistan Cricket Board’s sanctions were related to breaching the following rules.
- 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 under-performing therein.”
- 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”
- Article 2.1.4 – Attempting to solicit, induce, entice, persuade, encourage or intentionally facilitate a Participant to breach Article 2.1.”
- 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.”
Sayed Anwar Shah Quraishi, ACB’s Senior Anti-Corruption manager said that 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 ACU. “Our coverage is vaster than what is perceived. During our educational program, we always instruct players to report each suspicious activity in order to keep the game cricket and their own careers clean of any corrupt practices,” he said.
Shafiq, who last played an international in the T20I series against Bangladesh in September 2019, has shown regret through the investigation and is willing to commit to the ACB’s ACU future integrity educational program to help younger cricketers learn from his mistakes.
