Dubai: Rizwan Javed, a UK-based club cricketer, has been banned from all cricket for 17-and-a-half years by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for his repeated and serious attempts to corrupt matches in the Abu Dhabi T10 League in 2021. The ban is the second-longest ever imposed by the ICC, after the 20-year ban given to Zimbabwe cricket official Rajan Nayar in 2018.
Rizwan was among eight players and officials charged by the ICC on behalf of the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) in September last year for their involvement in the 2021 edition of the Abu Dhabi T10 League, a ten-over-a-side tournament sanctioned by the ECB and launched in 2017. Rizwan, who played for Cheadle Hulme Cricket Club in the Cheshire Cricket League until August 2019, tried to fix matches and influence players, especially within the Pune Devils franchise, during the tournament.
Rizwan failed to respond to the charges and was therefore deemed to have admitted his guilt and waived his right to a hearing. He was found guilty of five different breaches of the ECB Anti-Corruption Code for Participants, including being party to an attempt to fix matches, offering rewards to players for engaging in corrupt conduct, soliciting and facilitating players to breach the code, failing to disclose approaches or invitations to engage in corruption, and failing to cooperate with the investigation.
Alex Marshall, the ICC general manager of integrity, said in a statement: “Rizwan Javed has received a lengthy ban from cricket for his repeated and serious attempts to corrupt professional cricketers. He has shown no remorse and no respect for the rules that are in place to protect our sport. The sanction imposed should send a strong message to other corrupters trying to target cricket at any level and demonstrates that any attempt to corrupt cricket will be strongly dealt with.”
Rizwan’s ban is backdated to September 19, 2023, the date he was provisionally suspended. Another player charged in the same case, Bangladesh all-rounder Nasir Hussain, has been banned for two years, with six months of that suspended, after he accepted three charges of breaching the code. The cases of the other six players and officials are still pending.
