ICC bans Oman's player for seven years for corruption
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has banned Oman's Yousuf Abdulrahim Al Balushi for seven years for indulging in corrupt practice through the 2019 T20 World Cup Qualifier, played in the UAE last month. In January, ICC's anti-corruption unit (ACU) had filed the charges after finding Yousuf guilty on four counts including match-fixing. In a media release on Monday, ICC said that Yousuf accepted four charges of breaching the ICC Anti-Corruption Code.
"This is an extremely serious offence in which a player attempted but didn't get a teammate to activate in corrupt activity in visible games which is reflected in the severe nature of the sentence," ICC General Manager, Integrity, Alex Marshall said.
The Codes which Yousuf breached were:
Article 2.1.1: Being party to an agreement or effort to repair or contrive in any way the effect, progress, conduct or any other facet of matches in the ICC World T20 Qualifiers 2019.
Article 2.1.4: Wanting to solicit, induce, entice, persuade, inspire or intentionally facilitate a participant to breach Article 2.1.
Article 2.4.4: Failing woefully to report the approaches or invitations that you received from three different individuals to be always a party to an agreement or effort to repair matches in the ICC World T20 Qualifiers 2019.
Article 2.4.7: Obstructing or delaying a study carried out by the ACU with regards to possible corrupt conduct beneath the Code, including by concealing or tampering with information which may be relevant to that investigation and/or which may be evidence of or lead to the discovery of proof corrupt conduct beneath the Code.
Yousuf is not an active player for Oman for a couple of years after being named among the reserves for the 2016 T20 World Cup.
