2 UAE cricket players handed 8-year bans for corruption

Two United Arab Emirates cricket players were banned for eight years on Tuesday for attempting to corrupt qualifying matches for the T20 World Cup.

UAE captain Mohammad Naveed and veteran batsman Shaiman Anwar Butt received bans that are backdated to Oct. 16, 2019, when they were provisionally suspended for breaching the International Cricket Council’s anti-corruption code.

The ICC said the two players were found guilty by a tribunal of “being party to an agreement or effort to fix or contrive or otherwise influence improperly the result, progress, conduct or other aspect(s) of a match or matches” in T20 World Cup qualifying.

The governing body said they also “failed to disclose … full details of any approaches or invitations received to engage in corrupt conduct.”

Naveed also breached two counts of the anti-corruption code in the UAE’s T10 League in 2019.

The 33-year-old Naveed has taken 37 wickets in 31 T20s at an average of 19.70. Shaiman, 42, has a batting average of 33 in T20s.

“Both had long international careers and were well versed in the threat from match fixers,” said Alex Marshall, general manager of the ICC integrity unit. “That they both chose to engage with this corrupt activity was a cynical betrayal of their positions, their teammates, and all supporters of UAE cricket.”