UAE suspends five players amid ongoing ICC’s anti-corruption investigation
The Emirates Cricket Board (ECB), which oversees the functioning of the UAE cricket team, has provisionally suspended five of its players amidst the ongoing anti-Corruption investigation, led by the ICC. Among the five players is batsman Ashfaq Ahmed although no charges have yet been laid on him.
The UAE team was hit hard right before its campaign for the World T20 qualifiers got underway, with four of their players — including captain Mohammed Naveed — were suspended for corruption-related charges. Top-order batsman Shaiman Anwar, seamer Qadeer Ahmed and local player Mehardeep Chhayakar were the other three to be suspended. The players were in violation of at least two clauses each — relating to conspiracy to fix the upcoming tournament [T20 World Cup qualifiers] or failure to cooperate with the ACU investigation — under the ICC's Anti-Corruption Code.
Ashfaq, the fifth player in the suspended list, featured in UAE’s first two fixtures in the tournament, scoring 4 and 3 as an opening batsman, before being dropped for the third fixture.
Despite the setback and an opening-game loss against Oman, UAE bounced back with back-to-back wins against Ireland and Hong Kong, courtesy of some impressive bowling performances. After three games, they are at the second position in Group B.