Afghanistan's Shafiqullah Shafaq banned for 6 years over corruption charges

Afghanistan wicketkeeper-batsman Shafiqullah Shafaq has been banned from all forms of cricket fot a period of six years after he was found to have breached four articles of Afghanistan Cricket Board's (ACB) Anti-Corruption Code.

The 30-year-old has been charged for violating the ACB's anti-corruption code during the maiden edition of the Afghanistan Premier League (APL) in 2018 and Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) in 2019.

The four charges accepted by Shafaq are as follows:

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.”

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.”

Shafaq has admitted the charges levied against him and agreed to the suspension handed by the ACB and, therefore, there will be no need for any formal hearing.

Reflecting on the same, ACB's Senior Anti-Corruption manager, Sayed Anwar Shah Quraishi said that Shafaq has committed a very serious offence by engaging in corruption activities in a high-profile domestic game.

 “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.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," ACB official website quoted Quraishi as saying.

Quraishi further revealed that the ban could have been even longer, had Shafaq did not admit to the breach and made full cooperation with ACU throughout the investigation. He also revealed that the wicketkeeper-bastman is absolutely ready to contribute to ACB ACU's future integrity education programs in order to help young cricketers to learn from his mistakes.

Shafaq has appeared in 24 ODIs and 46 Twenty20Is for Afghanistan and notched up 430 and 494 runs, respectively.