Ashar Zaidi, batting coach of the Pune Devils team, and Devils' co-owners Parag Sanghavi and Krishan Kumar Choudhary have been served bans after admitting to corrupt activities at the 2021 Abu Dhabi T10 league, the ICC said in a statement on Wednesday.
Zaidi, a former Pakistani allrounder, has been banned from all cricket activities for five years. Sanghavi and Choudhary have both been banned for two years after they admitted to two breaches of the Emirates Cricket Board's anti-corruption code. "In each case, the last 12 months of each period of ineligibility is suspended," the statement said.
The bans are backdated to September 19, 2023, the date on which they were provisionally suspended, the ICC said, adding that "with the application of the suspended part of the sanction", Sanghavi and Choudhary will be re-eligible to participate in cricket from September 19, 2024 and Zaidi from September 19, 2027.
Zaidi, Sanghavi and Choudhary were among eight people charged by the ICC in September 2023 on behalf of the Emirates board.
The most prominent name among the other five was that of Bangladesh allrounder Nasir Hossain, who was banned for two years. He is eligible to return to cricket on April 7, 2025.
The charges admitted to by Zaidi, Sanghavi and Chaudhary are:
Ashar Zaidi
Article 2.1.4: Directly or indirectly soliciting, inducing, enticing, instructing, persuading, encouraging or intentionally facilitating any participant to breach Article 2.1 (Corruption)
Article 2.4.4: Failing to disclose to the anti-corruption officials the full details of any approaches or invitations received to engage in corrupt conduct under the dodeParag Sanghavi
Article 2.2.1: Placing bets on the results, progress, conduct or other aspect of international and domestic matches
Article 2.4.6: Failing or refusing, without compelling justification, to cooperate with any investigation in relation to possible corrupt conduct under the codeKrishan Kumar Choudhary
Article 2.4.5: Failing to disclose (without unnecessary delay) full details of any incident, fact, or matter that comes to the attention of a participant that may evidence corrupt conduct under the code by another participant
Article 2.4.6: Failing or refusing, without compelling justification, to cooperate with any investigation in relation to possible corrupt conduct under the code