Web desk: Pakistani cricketer Haider Ali has been cleared of allegations of rape after police in Greater Manchester ruled there was not enough evidence to proceed with the case.
Officials from Greater Manchester Police and the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed that the file has now been closed, according to the reports.
The 24-year-old batter, who was provisionally suspended by the Pakistan Cricket Board while the matter was under investigation, had consistently denied the accusation.
Represented by criminal law barrister Moeen Khan, Ali told officers that he and the woman involved were friends, and the claim had come as a complete shock to him.
Police had received the complaint from a British-Pakistani woman on 4 August, alleging that Ali raped her at a Manchester hotel.
She said their first meeting had taken place on July 23, 2025, at the same hotel, and that they met again on August 1 in Ashford, around four hours away by train. Four days later, she approached the police.
Ali was arrested the same day the report was filed, while at the Spitfire County Cricket Ground in Kent. Kent Police officers took him from the players’ canteen to Canterbury Police Station for questioning.
Investigators have now handed his passport back, and sources say he is free to leave the United Kingdom whenever he wishes.
Ali has played 35 T20 internationals and two one-day internationals for Pakistan since making his debut in 2020.
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