Cricket is often called the gentleman’s game because it is played with the right spirit. Nonetheless, there are infamous incidents that are happening behind the scenes which eventually defamed the reputation of the sport in the form of ‘match-fixing‘ or corrupt-related activity. This is truly unacceptable by any means.
In the latest development, the global cricket body, International Cricket Council (ICC) has banned Oman cricketer for seven years owing to involvement in the corrupt activity that is deemed contrary to the spirit of cricket.
Oman’s Yousuf Abdulrahim Al Balushi committed a very serious offence in his career as he was engaged in corrupt activity during the 2019 T20 World Cup Qualifier, played in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last month.
Yousuf accepts four charges of violating the ICC Anti-Corruption Code.
Al Balushi has not been an active cricketer for Oman national cricket team for a few years after being named among the reserves for the T20 World Cup tournament back in 2016.
Last month, ICC’s anti-corruption unit (ACU) filed the charges after learning Yousuf guilty on four counts including match-fixing offence.
In a recent media release on Monday, ICC added that Yousuf accepted all four charges of violating the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Code.
“This is a very serious offence where a player attempted but failed to get a teammate to engage in corrupt activity in high profile games and this is reflected in the severity of the sentence,” ICC General Manager, Integrity, Alex Marshall added in a statement.
“Without Mr Balushi’s admission of guilt and full cooperation throughout our investigation, the ban could have been significantly longer. The player has also indicated that he is willing to contribute to future integrity education programmes on our behalf to help younger players learn from his mistakes,” he added.
The Codes which Yousuf Abdulrahim Al Balushi breached were:
Article 2.1.1: Being party to an agreement or effort to fix or contrive in any way the result, progress, conduct or any other aspect of matches in the ICC World T20 Qualifiers 2019.
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 report the approaches or invitations that you received from three different individuals to be a party to an agreement or effort to fix matches in the ICC World T20 Qualifiers 2019.
Article 2.4.7: Obstructing or delaying an investigation carried out by the ACU in relation to possible corrupt conduct under the Code, including by concealing or tampering with information that may be relevant to that investigation and/or that may be evidence of or lead to the discovery of evidence of corrupt conduct under the Code.