DUBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday banned two HongKong players, including one who has already served a 30-month ban, from allcricket for life for breaching the ICC Anti-Corruption Code in matchesplayed between 2014 and 2016.
Irfan Ahmed, who was banned from all cricket for two-and-a-half years inApril 2016 after admitting breaches of the code, was found guilty on ninecharges, Irfan’s older brother Nadeem Ahmed on three.
The pair were banned for life. Teammate Haseeb Amjad received a five-yearban.
The ICC Anti-Corruption Tribunal “heard evidence that all three playersfixed or contrived to fix matches, failed, for reward, to perform andfailed to disclose approaches to fix during a number of internationalfixtures across a two-year period”.
Alex Marshall, ICC General Manager – ACU (Anti-Corruption Unit), added:”This has been a long and complex investigation which has uncoveredsystematic attempts to influence moments in matches by experiencedinternational cricketers over a period of time. Their conduct waspremeditated and sophisticated and each of the Ahmed brothers sought tocorrupt others.
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“The main offences relate to the Hong Kong matches against Scotland andCanada where the players fixed specific overs.
“These matches were won by Hong Kong so it did not materially affect theresults of the tournament, however, I cannot reiterate strongly enough toany player considering this that we treat any form of fixing – spot ormatch – with the utmost seriousness.”
Hong Kong is one of 92 associate, or non-Test playing, ICC members, makingit a second-tier team and a minnow on the international stage. -APP/AFP
