The ICC on Monday charged three Hong Kong cricketers for breaching the Anti-Corruption Code on a total of 19 counts and provisionally suspended them with immediate effect.

Irfan Ahmed, Nadeem Ahmed and Haseeb Amjad are the three players who have been sanctioned by the governing body after they admitted to breaching the code.

Irfan Ahmed, who has previously been banned for a period of two and half years on for a similar offence, has been charged with nine breaches while the remaining two players have been charged on five counts each.

The charges against the three concerned players range from the period between 2014 and 2016.

“The players have been provisionally suspended with immediate effect pending determination of these charge,” an official ICC release said.

“The players have 14 days from 8 October 2018 to respond to the charges. The ICC will not make any further comment in respect of these charges at this stage,” the release continued.

The charges against the three players relate to “fixing or contriving or otherwise influencing improperly, or being a party to an effort to fix or contrive or otherwise influence improperly, the result, progress, conduct or any other aspect” of an international match.

Irfan and Haseeb last played an international match for Hong Kong in 2015 and 2016 respectively while Nadeem recently turned out for the side in the Asia Cup held in the UAE.

Nadeem was part of the team that secured qualification to the main draw before giving eventual champions India a major scare in their final group game.