The links to match-fixing and corrupt practices with the players from Emirates Cricket Board just doesn’t seem to break as yet another cricketer has been banned for four years by International Cricket Council for failing to report match-fixing approaches.
UAE’s wicket keeper batsman Ghulam Shabber has been found guilty of breaching six counts of the ICC anti-corruption code. Shabbir has accepted the sanctions and has thus been banned for five years starting August 20.
According to ICC’s integrity unit, Shabber failed "to disclose to the ACU full details of attempted approaches to engage in corrupt conduct". The approaches were made to him during his team’s series against Nepal in January-February 2019 and then once again in the series against Zimbabwe in April of the same year.
The 35-year-old also failed to report "full details of an approach received by a teammate to engage in corrupt conduct in relation to the series against Zimbabwe in April 2019."
The anti-corruption unit of the international body also found the Pakistan born player guilty of derailing the investigation by concealing certain facts. The ACU said, that Ghulam failed, “to disclose to the ACU full details of facts and/or incidents that he was aware of which may have evidenced corrupt conduct by other Participants."
"Shabber played 40 matches for the UAE and was expected to understand his responsibilities as an international cricketer. He also attended at least three anti-corruption education sessions in which players were reminded of their obligations to report any approaches by corrupters," said Alex Marshall, ICC General Manager - Integrity Unit.
In his career spanning from 2016 to 2019, Shabber played 23 ODIs and 17 T20Is for UAE, scoring a total of 708 international runs with four fifties in his kitty and 90 being his highest score.