Aaron Jones was the United States of America (USA) captain for 5 matches in the T20 World Cup 2026. Less than two weeks before the next edition of the International Cricket Council (ICC) tournament, the 31-year-old has been found ineligible to play.
Charges against Aaron Jones
Just 2 ago, the ICC charged Jone on five counts of breach of the anti-corruption codes. The majority of the charges stemmed from the 2023-24 season of the Barbados Cricket Association’s Bim10 tournament, which Jones had participated in.
Cricket West Indies (CWI) and ICC have claimed that Hones attempted to fix matches, failed to disclose approaches, failed to cooperate with a reasonable investigation, and obstructing an Anti-Corruption Code (ACU) investigation by allegedly concealing or tampering with information relevant to the inquiry.
Fishy from the start
According to the Barbados Cricket Association’s website, each player participating in the 14-day event was paid US$62.50 (INR 5,745 approximately) per game. Players from all six franchises played 10 matches before the knockout matches, semifinals, and final.
Taking this into account, Jones was paid between US$625 and $750 (INR 57,456 to 68,947 approximately) to participate in the 2023-24 season of the Bim10. Remember, Jones is an international cricketer. The 31-year-old has played for the Seattle Orcas in Major League Cricket (MLC) and for the St Lucia Kings in the Caribbean Premier League.
To imagine that he’d play a tournament for just $750 when he was paid $35,000 (INR 32.15 lakh) in 2023 by the Orcas, just doesn’t make any sense at all. Even hearing this, one can judge what sort of activities might have been going on.
Ticket to the T20 World Cup cancelled
The USA announced its squad for the T20 World Cup 2026 earlier today. Jones wasn’t part of it since he had been suspended. But he was very much in the plans. The 31-year-old was training with the USA’s squad in Sri Lanka and scored 15 off 10 balls and 10 off 12 balls against Sri Lanka ‘A’ in two warm-up matches.
Now he’ll have to watch the tournament while sitting on his couch at home, while the ICC gives him a 2-week period to challenge the corruption charges levied against him.
