ACB bans Noor Mohammad for 5 years for breaching anti-corruption code
Sep 07, 2020
Kabul [Afghanistan], September 7 : Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) has banned domestic team assistant coach Noor Mohammad "Lalai" from all forms of cricket for a period of five years after he accepted four charges related to the breaching of the ACB Anti-Corruption Code.
"Noor Mohammad's position assistant coach -- someone who represents or is affiliated to an Afghanistan domestic team affiliated to ACB -- namely Kapisa in 2019 two-day provincial tournament, constitutes a Participant for the purposes of the code, furthermore, he is also a full-time coach with Hampalana private Cricket Academy," ACB said in a release.
"The charges relate to the Shpageeza Cricket League (SCL 2019), a national team player X was approached by Noor Mohammad Lalai with the reference to "work" being a request to assist with the spot-fixing in a few matches in the mentioned tournament," it added.
Under the provisions of the Code, Noor chose to admit the charges levied against him and agreed to the sanctions by ACB in lieu of an Anti-Corruption Tribunal hearing.
Addressing the matter, ACB's Senior Anti-Corruption manager, Sayed Anwar Shah Quraishi said: "This is a very disappointing and serious offence where a domestic level junior coach is involved in the corruption of a high-profile domestic game in SCL 2019. The coach, as an agent tried to get one of the national team player to engage in corruption of spot fixing of few matches in SCL 2019. Luckily, he failed to do so as he was reported."
Quraishi further added: "I would like to place on record my grateful appreciation and thanks to national player X who displayed true bravery and professionalism from the moment he reported this approach. He recognized it for what it was, rejected it and reported it. He then supported our investigation and subsequent tribunal."
Quraishi also pointed out that without Noor's admission of guilt and full cooperation with ACU throughout the investigation, the ban could have been significantly longer.
