ICC suspends Oman's Yousef Abdulrahim Al Balushi for alleged corruption
He was charged for allegedly indulging in corrupt practice during the 2019 T20 World Cup Qualifier
ESPNcricinfo staff
23-Jan-2020
The ICC's anti-corruption unit (ACU) has suspended Oman's Yousef Abdulrahim Al Balushi with immediate effect for allegedly indulging in corrupt practice during the 2019 T20 World Cup Qualifier, played in the UAE. The ACU filed the charges on Thursday against Al Balushi, who is also know as Yousuf Mahmood, finding him guilty on four counts including match-fixing. Al Balushi has two weeks to respond to the charges.
Al Balushi has not been an active player for Oman for a few years after being named among the reserves for the 2016 T20 World Cup. ESPNcricinfo understands Al Balushi, who was not even part of the national squad, was attempting to influence players in the Oman squad during the 2019 T20 World Cup Qualifier and was stopped by the ACU. It is understood that Al Balushi was allegedly involved with more than one corruptor who was attempting to carry out betting-related activity on the matches in the T20 World Cup Qualifier.
Oman, who finished second in Group B, qualified for the first round of the T20 World Cup which will be played later this year in Australia.
The ACU has charged Al Balushi for breaching its code on the following four counts:
Article 2.1.1: Being party to an agreement or effort to fix or contrive in any way the result, progress, conduct or any other aspect of matches in the ICC World T20 Qualifiers 2019.
Article 2.1.4: Attempting to solicit, induce, entice, persuade, encourage or intentionally facilitate a Participant to breach Article 2.1.
Article 2.4.4: Failing to report the approaches or invitations that you received from three different individuals to be a party to an agreement or effort to fix matches in the ICC World T20 Qualifiers 2019.
Article 2.4.7: Obstructing or delaying an investigation carried out by the ACU in relation to possible Corrupt Conduct under the Code, including by concealing or tampering with information that may be relevant to that investigation and/or that may be evidence of or lead to the discovery of evidence of Corrupt Conduct under the Code.