The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced a seven-year ban for Oman player Yusuf Abdulrahim Al Balushi from all forms of cricket after his involvement in trying to fixing matches was found.

Al Balushi accepted four charges of breaching the ICC Anti-Corruption Code. The charges are all related to the ICC men's T20 World Cup Qualifiers 2019 held in the United Arab Emirates.

As per ICC statement, Al Balushi breached the Article 2.1.1 of the Anti-Corruption Code -- being party to an agreement or effort to fix or contrive in any way the result, progress, conduct or any other aspect of matches. Apart from this, he also breached Article 2.1.4, Article 2.4.4 and Article 2.4.7 — all relating to corrupt practices.

The Oman player accepted the charges and agreed to the sanction with ICC in lieu of an Anti-Corruption Tribunal hearing.

"This is a very serious offense 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 Balushi's admission of guilt and full cooperation throughout our investigation, the ban could have been significantly longer,” ICC General Manager, Integrity, Alex Marshall said.

"The player has also indicated that he is willing to contribute to future integrity education programs on our behalf to help younger players learn from his mistakes," he added.

(PTI inputs)