UAE cricket corruption timeline: Qadeer Ahmed banned for five years

It is nearly 18 months since the UAE cricket team was first rocked by a corruption controversy. On Wednesday, Qadeer Ahmed was suspended from cricket for five years for breaching the sport's anti-corruption rules. It follows eight-year bans handed out to Mohammed Naveed and Shaiman Anwar last month , for conspiring to fix aspects of matches at the 2019 T20 World Cup Qualifier. Here is how the saga has unfolded. A meeting takes place between Naveed, Shaiman and Deepak Agarwal, an Indian businessman, on a beach in Ajman in the evening. The players subsequently claim they thought this meeting was to be about playing in the Abu Dhabi T10 league later in the year. According to evidence at the hearing into the case, the meeting was actually to discuss potential fixes in the T20 World Cup Qualifier. The report refers to a WhatsApp conversation on this day which involved doing “work” (fixes), with sums of Dh100,000, Dh500,000 and Dh1 million mentioned. The ICC’s anti-corruption unit (ACU) are contacted by Agarwal, who “alleged he had received an approach to engage in corrupt conduct in relation to the” Qualifier, according to the tribunal report. He is interviewed extensively by the ACU two days later. Officers from the ICC’s anti-corruption operation enter the players and match officials area during the UAE’s practice match against Namibia at the ICC Academy. After the game, Naveed, Shaiman, and the seam bowler Qadeer Ahmed are led away for questioning. The Emirates Cricket Board confirm Ahmed Raza has replaced Naveed as the UAE captain , and that the fast bowler has been withdrawn from the squad for the Qualifier – but no reasons are given as to why. Naveed, Shaiman and Qadeer are charged by ICC with multiple breaches of cricket's anti-corruption code. Naveed tells The National : "It is my mistake, and I feel guilty. My family is let down, my friends are let down. Everybody is let down." Qadeer, whose case is separate to that of Shaiman and Naveed, admits failing to report "a wrong approach" . But he adds: "Financially, after playing four years of international cricket, me and my family are still in the same position, living in a rented house. I have not been involved in any illegal activity." UAE beat Hong Kong by eight wickets in the Qualifier in Abu Dhabi. But shortly after victory is sealed, it is announced opening batsman Ashfaq Ahmed has been provisionally suspended by the ECB, as part of the ICC investigation. UAE lose to Jersey in the Qualifier. It is then revealed wicketkeeper Ghulam Shabber is absent without leave , having failed to show for a team meeting a day earlier, or board the bus to the ground. Instead, he had flown to Pakistan with no explanation. Shabber tells The National that he is willing to comply with the ICC's corruption probe from his home in Pakistan, but that he will not play cricket again. "I have left cricket behind, and want to move on with my life with my family," he says. The national team's hopes of making it to the T20 World Cup in Australia (which is later postponed because of the coronavirus) end, as they are beaten by Scotland in the last-chance eliminator in Dubai. An hour later, the ECB confirm Shabber has been suspended for "absconding" and is part of the corruption investigation. Ashfaq and Amir Hayat, a fast bowler who was not part of the UAE squad for the T20 Qualifier, are formally charged by the ICC for a variety of corruption offences, and suspended from cricket indefinitely. The charges include "seeking, accepting, offering or agreeing to accept any bribe or other reward" to "influence improperly" aspects of international matches. Ashfaq insists he has "done nothing wrong" . "I cannot imagine compromising everything I have earned to do something like this," he says. "I cannot do this to the UAE, which has given me so much, including transforming an ordinary cricketer to an international one." An independent tribunal find Naveed and Shaiman guilty of two charges, including “being party to an agreement or effort to fix or contrive or otherwise influence improperly” matches at the 2019 T20 World Cup Qualifier. Within the 46-page report, it is said “their behaviour was wholly inconsistent with that of persons repelled by a corrupt approach; and wholly consistent with that of persons who either instigated such an approach or were willing recipients of one.” Naveed and Shaiman are banned from all cricket for eight years . "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," said Alex Marshall, the ICC's head of integrity. Raza says he wants cricket to move on following the corruption controversy . "I take a lot of pride in wearing UAE on my chest, and would always want our team to be in the news for the right reasons," the captain said. "For me personally there is zero tolerance in this matter." Naveed registers an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland. "Now my life is finished, and I will not accept it," Naveed says. "I will fight however I can." Qadeer is banned from the sport for five years, after acknowledging his guilt. “I never took a single dirham and I never bowled any illegal ball in my career,” Qadeer says. “But, I am sorry and gutted that, as per the ACU rules, I was wrong on different occasions.”

UAE cricket corruption timeline: Qadeer Ahmed banned for five years

Former UAE fast bowler the third UAE cricketer to be hit with long ban by ICC