Anti-corruption probe: ECB provisionally suspends Ashfaq Ahmed

Abu Dhabi - The Board added that no 'replacement for Ahmed will be requested or made to UAE's World T20 Qualifier squad.

The UAE cricket team's misery has deepened. The Emirates Cricket Board announced that UAE opener Ashfaq Ahmed has been suspended as part of the ongoing investigations led by the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit.
Just before the ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier, three senior players Mohammed Naveed, Shaiman Anwar and Qadeer Ahmed were charged with 13 counts of breaching anti-corruption code and suspended.
"Further to the ongoing investigations led by the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit, Emirates Cricket Board has today provisionally suspended Ashfaq Ahmed with immediate effect. No formal charges have been laid against the player, and the Board will wait for the conclusion of proceedings before making any further comment. The Board fully supports the ICC and the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit in their efforts and denounces any activities of corruption. Emirates Cricket's immediate focus remains firmly on the ICC World T20 Qualifiers," the Board said in a statement.
The Board added that no 'replacement for Ahmed will be requested or made to UAE's World T20 Qualifier squad'. Junaid Siddique, Darius D'Silva and Waheed Ahmed had earlier replaced the suspended trio in the T20 squad.
Earlier in the day, Ashfaq was dropped for the match against Hong Kong. The opener is off colour scoring 3 and 4 runs in the last two matches. However, skipper Ahmed Raza clarified it was done to find the right combination for day matches.
"We don't play a night game until the last game of group stages, which is against Canada. We wanted to have a look at different combinations playing our first day game," Raza said during the post-match press conference and before the Board statement was released.
The UAE will be back in the field against Jersey at the Tolerance Oval on Tuesday (2.10 pm).
ashwani@khaleejtimes.com