Shabber jumps ship: Ghulam flees UAE, appears in Pakistan

Ghulam Shabber of UAE (middle) celebrates a wicket. (BD Crictime)

UAE’s T20 World Cup Qualifier Squad is without another member after Ghulam Shabber left the country unannounced, failing to show up for a team meeting on Monday morning.

The ‘keeper was absent for UAE’s matches against Hong Kong and Jersey, popping up in Pakistan, the nation of his birth.

Concerned for Shabber’s safety, UAE staff reached out to emergency contacts and visited his residence to no avail. Just 13 players are left in UAE’s squad for the qualifier, with four suspensions derailing their home campaign.

Mohammed Naveed, Qadeer Ahmed and Shaiman Anwar were all stood down after breaching cricket’s anti-corruption code. Ashfaq Ahmed joined the three in corruption trouble, though according to reports Shabber was not part of the anti-corruption investigation.

Ghulam Shabber of UAE (middle) celebrates a wicket. (BD Crictime)

On the field, UAE lost to Jersey by 30 runs in Abu Dhabi today. They now sit precariously in fourth in Group B, with two wins and two losses.

It remains unclear if UAE will be able to bring in an emergency player for the rest of the tournament.

Visit our T20 World Cup Qualifier home page here!

Scorecard of UAE’s match with Jersey here.

Daniel Beswick

One of the Emerging Cricket Co-Founders, Daniel is currently an integral part of the International Cricket Council's digital team via an external client, while commentating and presenting across several ICC events. Daniel has also been an statistician for cricket broadcasts around the world.