KABUL: Afghanistan wick­et-keeper/batsman Shafiqullah Shafaq has been hit with a six-year ban after he accepted four charges of breaching their Anti-Corr­uption Code, the country’s cricket board (ACB) said on Sunday.

The charges relate to offe­n­ces during the first edition of the Afghanistan Premier League (APL) T20 in 2018, where Shafaq played for the Nangarhar Leopards, and the 2019 Bangladesh Pre­mier League (BPL), where he represented Sylhet Thunder.

The 30-year-old Shafaq, who made his Afghanistan debut in 2009 and has played 24 one-day internationals and 46 Twenty20 internationals, will be banned from all forms of cricket.

“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 Quraishi said in a statement. “The player had also attempted but failed to get one of his team mates to engage in corruption in another high-profile game during the BPL 2019.

“It’s 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 Shafaq’s admission of guilt and cooperation had helped him avoid a longer ban.

Shafaq will also help with the ACB’s integrity education programs to help younger players learn from his mistakes.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2020