Oman player accepts charges of breaching ICC Anti-Corruption Code, gets banned for 7 years

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has banned Oman player Yousuf Abdulrahim Al Balushi from cricket for as many as seven years after he accepted four charges of breaching the ICC Anti-Corruption Code.

According to the press release from the international cricket body, Al Balushi's charges were associated with the ICC Men's T20 World Cup Qualifiers 2019 that was held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Here is the list of charges against the Oman cricketer:

Breach of 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.

Breach of Article 2.1.4 – Attempting to solicit, induce, entice, persuade, encourage or intentionally facilitate a Participant to breach Article 2.1.

Breach of 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.

Breach of 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.

"Under the provisions of the Code, Mr Al Balushi chose to admit the charges and agreed with the sanction with the ICC in lieu of an Anti-Corruption Tribunal hearing," the press release further stated.

Al Balushi, who has not been an active player for Oman for a few years, was last named in the Oman squad among the reserves for the 2016 T20 World Cup. He was not even a part of the Oman squad at the T20 World Cup qualifiers in 2019 but reportedly, he was trying to influence players, who were a part of Oman squad in the UAE.

There have been reports also saying that Al Balushi was allegedly involved with more than one corruptor who was trying to perform the betting-related activity on the matches in Qualifier tournament in 2019.

"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.

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," ICC General Manager, Integrity, Alex Marshall said.