On December 25, the Afghanistan Cricket Board released a statement, announcing that they would delay awarding central contracts and that they would not issue No Objection Certificates (NOCs) to Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi, and Mujeeb Ur Rahman.

All three cricketers are regulars in numerous franchise-based T20 leagues around the world, and had “expressed their desire to release themselves from the annual central contract, starting from 1st January 2024”. The ACB responded by declaring that they had taken disciplinary action against the trio.

“The insistence on not signing the central contract for these players was their involvement in commercial leagues, prioritizing their personal interests over playing for Afghanistan, which is regarded as a national responsibility. By opting for their release, the Afghanistan Cricket Board has decided to take disciplinary measures against these players,” read the ACB release.

The ACB also formed a committee to investigate the issue and provide “recommendations that best serve the ACB’s interests”. The committee decided, among other things, to not issue the contracts to Naveen, Farooqi, and Mujeeb for a year, starting January 1, 2024, and revoking all their active NOCs.

Until they retire, this effectively rules out their participation in any T20 league. Afghanistan are touring the UAE for two fifty-over matches and three T20Is, but the selectors have not picked any of them (it is worth mentioning that Naveen has retired from ODIs and, presumably, the format).

On December 27, Naveen posted the following Instagram story: “It’s a normal and a common thing truth comes out late and lies spread around faster than fire”.

Exactly what the cryptic message means remains unclear, as is the identity of the subject of the message.