Mohammad tried to fix a few Shpageeza Cricket League matches last year.
The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) has banned assistant domestic coach Noor Mohammad Lalai from all forms of the game for five years after he was found guilty of a spot-fixing attempt during the last year’s Shpageeza Cricket League 2019.
Noor Mohammad, who is a domestic assistant coach with the Kapisa province side and a full-time coach with Hampalana private cricket academy, had approached a national team player “with the reference to work being a request to assist with the spot-fixing in a few matches in the Shpageeza Cricket League.”
His act was reported by that approached national player, but ACB didn’t reveal his name.
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Noor was found guilty of the four offenses, breaching Article 2.1.1 for “fixing or contriving in any way or otherwise influencing improperly, or being a party to any agreement or effort to fix”, Article 2.1.4 for “attempting to solicit, induce, entice, persuade, encourage or intentionally facilitate a Participant to breach Article 2.1”, Article 2.3.3 for “directly soliciting, inducing, enticing or encouraging a participant to breach the Code”, as well as, Article 2.4.4 for “failing to disclose to the Designated Anti-Corruption Official (without unnecessary delay) full details of any approaches or invitations received by a Participant to engage in Corrupt Conduct under ACB Anti-Corruption Code.”
The domestic coach admitted to the charges levied against him and agreed to the sanctions of suspension from all forms of the game for five years after by ACB in lieu of an Anti-Corruption Tribunal hearing.
The ACB said in a statement: “The charges relate to the Shpageeza Cricket League (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. Under the provisions of the Code, Mr. Noor Mohammad chose to admit the charges levied against him and agreed to the sanctions by ACB in lieu of an Anti-Corruption Tribunal hearing.”
Meanwhile, ACB's Senior Anti-Corruption manager, Mr. Sayed Anwar Shah Quraishi said on the matter: “This is a very disappointing and serious offense 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 Players to engage in corruption of spot-fixing of few matches in SCL 2019. Luckily, he failed to do so as he was reported.”
Notably, the ACB also offered “grateful appreciation” to the national player who reported Mohammad’s act by saying this displays “true bravery and professionalism”.
Mr. Quraishi signed off by saying: “I would like to place on record my grateful appreciation and thanks to national Player Mr. 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.”
(With ACB Inputs)