Shafiqullah Shafaq (; or Mohammad Shafiqullah) (born 7 August 1989) is an Afghan

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er, who played for the Afghanistan national cricket team before being banned from cricket for corruption. He is a right-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball, ball with a cricket bat, bat to score runs (cricket), runs and prevent the dismissal (cricket), loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since Septembe ...

who plays primarily as a wicketkeeper.

International career

His debut for Afghanistan came against

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in the 2006 Asian Cricket Council Middle East Cup. His next appearance for the team was in 2008 when Afghanistan played

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as part of the

2008 ACC Trophy Elite The 2008 ACC Trophy Elite was a cricket tournament in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, taking place between 25 July and 3 August 2008. It gives Associate and Affiliate members of the Asian Cricket Council experience of international one-day cricket and a ...

, during which he played 5 more matches for Afghanistan. Later, he continued to be a part of the rapidly rising Afghanistan cricket team that in under a year, from 2008–2009, won

World Cricket League The ICC World Cricket League (WCL) was a series of international one-day cricket tournaments for national teams without Test status (i.e., teams of Associate status) administered by the International Cricket Council. All Associate Members of ...

Division Five,

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and

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, thus reaching Division Two and becoming eligible to take part in the

2009 ICC World Cup Qualifier The 2009 ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier was a cricket tournament that took place in April 2009 in South Africa. It was the final part of the Cricket World Cup qualification process for the 2011 Cricket World Cup. The tournament was the renam ...

where they qualified for

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

status and first-class status. It was during the World Cup Qualifier that he made his

List-A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numb ...

debut for Afghanistan against

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. He represented Afghanistan in 5 List-A matches during the tournament. His

debut came in 2009 when Afghanistan played the

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during their 2009 tour of the Netherlands. His second ODI to date came against

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in February 2010. Later in November 2009, he represented Afghanistan in the

2009 ACC Twenty20 Cup The 2009 ACC Twenty20 Cup was played between 22 and 30 November 2009 in the United Arab Emirates. The twelve competing teams were: Afghanistan, Bahrain, China, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Malaysia, Nepal, Oman national cricket team, Oman, Qatar national ...

, during which he played 5 matches against

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, Saudi Arabia, the

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and

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. He played in the final of that tournament, which came against the United Arab Emirates and ended up with Afghanistan winning by 8 wickets. His

Twenty20 International Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of Twenty20 cricket, in which each team plays a single innings with a maximum of twenty overs. The matches are played between international teams recognized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). ...

debut came against

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during the 2010 Quadrangular Twenty20 Series in Sri Lanka in February 2010. He was later selected as part of the Afghanistan squad for the

2010 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier The 2010 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier was played from 9–13 February 2010 in the United Arab Emirates and a part of ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier series. The top two teams progressed to play in the 2010 ICC World Twenty20, the international cham ...

, where he played 3 Twenty20 Internationals against Ireland,

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and the

. Afghanistan won this tournament and therefore qualified for the

2010 ICC World Twenty20 The 2010 ICC World Twenty20 was the third edition of the Men's T20 World Cup, formerly known as the ICC World Twenty20, an international Twenty20 cricket tournament that was held in the West Indies between 30 April and 16 May 2010. It was wo ...

. Shafiqullah was selected to represent Afghanistan at the

2010 Asian Games The 2010 Asian Games (), officially known as the XVI Asian Games () and also known as Guangzhou 2010 (), were a regional multi-sport event held from November 12 to 27, 2010 in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China (although several events commenced ear ...

in which Afghanistan won silver. Selected as part of Afghanistan's ICC World Twenty20, he did not feature in either of the team's matches against

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and

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Domestic career

He made his first-class debut for Speen Ghar Region in the

2017–18 Ahmad Shah Abdali 4-day Tournament The 2017–18 Ahmad Shah Abdali 4-day Tournament was an edition of the Ahmad Shah Abdali 4-day Tournament, a cricket tournament in Afghanistan. It was the first edition of the competition to be played with first-class status. The tournament st ...

on 13 November 2017. He also played for Speen Ghar in that year's Regional One Day Tournament and the Speen Ghar Tigers in the

2017 Shpageeza Cricket League The 2017 season of the Shpageeza Cricket League (), also known as SCL 5, was the fifth edition of the Shpageeza, a professional Twenty20 cricket league established by the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) in 2013. The tournament featured the six t ...

. In 2018, he switched to the Kabul Region team. In April 2018, during a match in the

2018 Ahmad Shah Abdali 4-day Tournament The 2018 Ahmad Shah Abdali 4-day Tournament was an edition of the Ahmad Shah Abdali 4-day Tournament, a cricket tournament in Afghanistan. It was the second edition of the competition to be played with first-class status. The tournament starte ...

at Asadabad, he scored the fastest double century in first-class cricket. He scored 200

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from 89 balls, and also scored the most sixes in a first-class match, with 24. To date, this is his only

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in professional cricket. He was the leading run-scorer for Kabul Region in the

2018 Ghazi Amanullah Khan Regional One Day Tournament The 2018 Ghazi Amanullah Khan Regional One Day Tournament was a List A cricket competition that took place in Afghanistan between 10 and 27 July 2018. It was the second edition of the competition to be played with List A status, following the a ...

, with 197 runs in four matches. He also played for their first class team in the

. In September 2018, he was named in

Nangarhar Nangarhār (Pashto: ; Dari: ), also called Nangrahar or Ningrahar, is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country and bordering Logar, Kabul, Laghman and Kunar provinces as well as having an internatio ...

's squad in the

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of the

Afghanistan Premier League The Afghanistan Premier League (; ), officially Gulbahar Afghanistan Premier League for sponsorship reasons, was a Twenty20 cricket franchise tournament run by the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB), held in the United Arab Emirates.) The only tour ...

tournament. In October 2019, he played for the Speen Ghar Tigers in the 2019 Sphageeza Cricket League. In November 2019, he was selected to play for the

Sylhet Thunder Sylhet Strikers () is a professional cricket franchise based in Sylhet, Bangladesh, competing in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL). The team made its debut in the inaugural 2012 Bangladesh Premier League. Initially owned by Sylhet Sports Limi ...

in the

2019–20 Bangladesh Premier League The Bangladesh Premier League 2019–20, also known as BPL Season 7 or Bangabandhu BPL Presented by AKASH DTH and Powered by TVS (for sponsorship reasons), was the seventh season of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), the top level profession ...

Ban for corruption

In May 2020, Shafiqullah was banned from cricket for six years by the

Afghanistan Cricket Board The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB; , ; formerly Afghanistan Cricket Federation) is the official governing body of cricket in Afghanistan. It is Afghanistan's representative at the International Cricket Council (ICC) and was an associate member ...

, on charges of corruption relating to the 2018–19 Afghanistan Premier League and the

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shafiqullah, Shafaq 1989 births Living people Pashtun cricketers Afghan cricketers 21st-century Afghan sportsmen Cricketers from Nangarhar Province Afghanistan One Day International cricketers Afghanistan Twenty20 International cricketers Asian Games medalists in cricket Cricketers at the 2010 Asian Games Cricketers at the 2015 Cricket World Cup Spin Ghar Tigers cricketers Asian Games silver medalists for Afghanistan Medalists at the 2010 Asian Games Kabul Eagles cricketers Nangarhar Leopards cricketers Cricketers banned for corruption Wicket-keepers