ACB bans Shafiqullah from cricket for 6 years

Monitoring Desk

KABUL: The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) banned the national team player Shafaqullah Shafaq from all forms of cricket for a period of six years after he accepted four charges related to breachng of ACB Anti-Corruption Code.

According to a statement released by ACB, the charges relate to the first edition of the Afghanistan Premier League T20 (APL T20) in 2018 and the 2019 edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).

The statement further added that Shafaq breached four articles of the anti-corruption code including Article 2.1.1 b fixing or contriving, Article 2.1.3 by seeking, accepting, offering or agreeing to accept any bribe or other Reward.

He also breached the Article 2.1.4 by attempting to solicit, induce, entice, persuade, encourage or intentionally facilitate a Participant to breach Article 2.1, as well as the Article 2.4.4 by 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.

Under the provisions of the Code, Mr. Shafaq chose to admit the charges levied against him and agreed to the sanctions by ACB in lieu of an Anti-Corruption Tribunal hearing, ACB added.

Addressing the matter, ACB’s Senior Anti-Corruption manager, Mr. Sayed Anwar Shah Quraishi said “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. 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.”

Quraishi further added “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.” (Khaama Press)