The International Cricket Council (ICC) has handed down bans to Pune Devils’ batting coach Ashar Zaidi and co-owners Parag Sanghavi and Krishan Kumar Choudhary for their involvement in corrupt activities during the 2021 Abu Dhabi T10 league. The bans come after the trio admitted to breaching the Emirates Cricket Board’s anti-corruption code.
Ashar Zaidi Banned for 5 Years
Ashar Zaidi, a former Pakistani allrounder who served as the Pune Devils’ batting coach, has been banned from all cricket activities for five years. Zaidi admitted to directly or indirectly soliciting, inducing, enticing, instructing, persuading, encouraging or intentionally facilitating any participant to breach Article 2.1 (Corruption) of the anti-corruption code. He was also found guilty of failing to disclose full details of any approaches or invitations received to engage in corrupt conduct.
Pune Devils’ co-owners Parag Sanghavi and Krishan Kumar Choudhary have both been banned for two years after admitting to two breaches of the Emirates Cricket Board’s anti-corruption code. Sanghavi was charged with placing bets on the results, progress, conduct or other aspect of international and domestic matches. Both Sanghavi and Choudhary were also found guilty of failing or refusing, without compelling justification, to cooperate with any investigation in relation to possible corrupt conduct under the code.
Bans Backdated to September 2023
The bans handed down to Zaidi, Sanghavi, and Choudhary are backdated to September 19, 2023, the date on which they were provisionally suspended. 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, while Zaidi will be eligible from September 19, 2027.
The charges against Zaidi, Sanghavi, and Choudhary were part of a larger case involving eight individuals who were charged by the ICC in September 2023 on behalf of the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) as the Designated Anti-Corruption Official (DACO) for the Abu Dhabi T10 tournament. Earlier this year, former Bangladesh international Nasir Hossain was also handed a two-year ban for corruption related to the same tournament.
The ICC’s anti-corruption unit is confident that they foiled attempts to corrupt matches in the 2021 Abu Dhabi T10 league and have no evidence that any fixing took place. The Pune Devils finished last in the 10-over competition, winning only one of their six matches
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