Hong Kong player banned for breaching ICC code

Hong Kong all-rounder Irfan Ahmad has been banned for two-anda-half years for failing to disclose approaches made to him to engage in corruption, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said yesterday.

The 26-year-old Pakistan-born cricketer was provisionally suspended in November with the ICC’s anticorruption unit (ACU) investigating his role in relation to the activities of another suspected offender.

“Whilst Ahmad was not charged with any offence involving corruption, the ACU established that he had failed to disclose to it full details of approaches or invitations to engage in corrupt conduct that had been made to him between January 2012 and January 2014,” the ICC said in a statement.

Right to appeal waived

Ahmad, who had played in six One-day Internationals and eight Twenty20 matches for Hong Kong, accepted the sanction and waived his right to appeal, the ICC added.

Cricket has been plagued by a number of corruption issues and a 2010 spot-fixing scandal resulted in bans and jail terms for Pakistan fast bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, and former Test captain Salman Butt.