Sydney Thunder have decided to formally terminate Afghan pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi’s contract. The team had received a complaint about his behaviour after an incident and had referred the matter to Cricket Australia’s integrity unit.
Following the complete investigation, Cricket Australia’s conduct commissioner held subsequent hearings. After those proceedings, Thunder decided to formally end his contract and have not made a decision yet about a replacement player.
A statement from CA said that the details of this matter “are confidential” and that “no further comment will be made”. Reports have also suggested that there has been no police involvement regarding the incident.
“The behaviours displayed by Fazalhaq Farooqi sit outside our values and it was determined that his contract be terminated. Our focus now is providing the necessary support to those affected by this incident,”
Cricket NSW CEO Lee Germon said.
Sydney Thunder had said that the club had received a formal complaint regarding his behaviour on Friday, December 15. The incident was then promptly referred to CA for investigation. Before the said incident took place, Farooqi had already played a match for Thunder in Big Bash League 2022/23 where he took 2/20 with the ball.
Between the incident taking place and the decision to terminate his contract, the Afghan pace bowler played three more matches. The day after the incident, Thunder made global headlines for all the wrong reasons when they were bowled out for just 15 by the Adelaide Strikers.
He made one run with the bat during that match and was the batter who remained not out after the innings ended in the sixth over. Farooqi had earlier taken three wickets with the ball.
He then failed to pick up wickets in the following two matches with Melbourne Renegades as well as the rematch with the Strikers. He had been picked by Thunder after impressing with Afghanistan during the recently held T20 World Cup in Australia. He had been signed to a nine-match contract as a replacement for David Willey, who had decided to withdraw from the tournament in November.
