Ex-West Indies star Marlon Samuels found guilty of corruption offences by ICC

Jamaican was investigated in relation to his selection for 2019 Abu Dhabi T10 after all-expenses trip to Dubai

The tribunal is yet to decide on former West Indies player Marlon Samuels's punishment for breaching the ICC's anti-corruption code. Reuters

Marlon Samuels, the two-time T20 World Cup winner for West Indies, has been found guilty of four corruption offences.

The 42-year-old Jamaican was ruled to have breached the Emirates Cricket Board’s Anti-Corruption Code, in relation to the 2019 Abu Dhabi T10.

An independent tribunal found Samuels guilty of failing to disclose an all-expenses paid trip to Dubai that year which it decided “was made or given in circumstances that could bring [Samuels] or the sport of cricket into disrepute”.

He was also found to have failed to co-operate with the anti-corruption investigation and obstructed it “by concealing information that may have been relevant to the investigation”.

Samuels was signed by Karnataka Tuskers for the 2019 Abu Dhabi T10 but did not play a match after deciding not to travel just before the start of the tournament.

The ownership of the team changed midway through that competition as the original owner was under investigation for potential corruption.

According to the ICC’s report into the case, their anti-corruption unit had been alerted to the fact Samuels had travelled to Dubai via photos on his Instagram account.

During the course of the trip, he associated with Mehar Chhayakar, a former UAE domestic cricketer who was last year banned from cricket for 14 years for a variety of corruption offences.

Chhayakar’s charges included attempting to induce Qadeer Ahmed and Ghulam Shabber, both former UAE players, to fix aspects of matches in 2019.

The report into the Samuels case suggests Chhayakar had interests in two teams in the T10.

It states he would offer players the chance to play for those sides, in exchange for 10 per cent of their fee, with the opportunity to make “extra money” – said to be a euphemism for fixing - during the event.

“Prior to the start of the 2019 T10, the ACU became aware that a number of approaches had been made to players and agents by a man calling himself ‘Rehan Ali’,” the report states.

“These approaches were said to include an offer to go to Dubai for a few days in order to meet team owners from the T10.

“The ACU’s investigations revealed that Rehan Ali was actually an individual named Mehar Chhayakar who was known to the ACU as someone involved in corruption.”

The report details that Samuels had not declared the trip to the ACU and had obstructed the investigation.

He said during an interview for the investigation he had travelled to Dubai to promote an after-shave brand but did not disclose who paid for the trip.

The tribunal stated that, ‘if Mr Samuels was not consciously involved in that proposed corrupt enterprise it was his singular misfortune that coincidentally two of those who were,’ meaning Chhayakar and the team owner who was separately investigated for corruption.

‘The majority [two of the three members of the tribunal] does not accept that this was mere coincidence.’

A sanction has yet to be decided. As per the ICC’s anti-corruption code, the penalty for the offences range from a minimum or six months to a maximum of five years.

Samuels, who was found guilty of a similar offence back in 2008, has not played cricket since 2018.