Shafiqullah Shafaq ( ps, شفیق الله شفق; or Mohammad Shafiqullah) (born 7 August 1989) is an Afghan

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

er. He is a right-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, th ...

who plays primarily as a

wicketkeeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. ...

. He played for the

Afghanistan national cricket team The Afghanistan men's national team ( ps, د افغانستان کرکټ ملي لوب‌‌‌‌‌‌ډله, fa, تیم ملی کریکت افغانستان) represents Afghanistan in international cricket. Cricket has been played in Afgh ...

before being banned from cricket for corruption.

International career

His debut for Afghanistan came against

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries by area, fifth-largest country in Asia ...

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

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

as part of the 2008 ACC Trophy Elite, during which he played 5 further matches for Afghanistan during the tournament. 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 Division Five,

Division Four The Football League Fourth Division was the fourth-highest division in the English football league system from the 1958–59 season until the creation of the Premier League prior to the 1992–93 season. Whilst the division disappeared in name ...

and Division Three, thus promoting them to Division Two and allowing them to take part in the

2009 ICC World Cup Qualifier The 2009 ICC 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 is the renamed version ...

where they qualified for

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World Cup ...

status and first-class status. It was during the World Cup Qualifier that he made his List-A debut for Afghanistan against

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establishe ...

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

debut came in 2009 when Afghanistan played the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

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

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

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, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and the UAE. ...

, during which he played 5 matches against the national teams China,

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

, Saudi Arabia, the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at ...

and

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the no ...

. 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 A Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of cricket, played between two of the international members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), in which each team faces a maximum of twenty overs. The matches have top-class status and are the ...

debut came against

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

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, where he played 3 Twenty20 Internationals against Ireland,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

and the

. Afghanistan won this tournament and therefore qualified for the

2010 ICC World Twenty20 The 2010 ICC World Twenty20 was the third ICC World Twenty20 competition, an international Twenty20 cricket tournament that was held in the West Indies between 30 April and 16 May 2010. It was won by England, who defeated Australia in the fi ...

. 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 (), was a regional multi-sport event celebrated from November 12 to November 27, 2010 in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China, although several events ...

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

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

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 sta ...

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 ( ps, شپږيزه کريکټ ليګ ۲۰۱۷), 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 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 Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch wi ...

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

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at t ...

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

century A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial ...

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 ...

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

. In September 2018, he was named in Nangarhar's squad in the first edition of the Afghanistan Premier League 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 (Sylheti/ bn, সিলেট স্ট্রাইকার্স) is a professional cricket franchise team based in Sylhet, Bangladesh. The team competes in the Bangladesh Premier League. The franchise made their debut at th ...

in the

2019–20 Bangladesh Premier League The 2019–20 BPL season, also known as BPL 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 professional Twenty20 cricket lea ...

Ban for corruption

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

Afghanistan Cricket Board The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB; ps, د افغانستان کرکټ بورډ, fa, کرکت بورد افغانستان; formerly Afghanistan Cricket Federation) is the official governing body of cricket in the Afghanistan. It is Afghanista ...

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

References

External links

*
Shafiqullah
on CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:Shafiqullah, Shafaq 1989 births Living people Pashtun people Afghan cricketers 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