The former CEO of Cricket Canada, accused of misappropriating $200,000 from the Calgary and District league, saw all criminal charges against him dropped by Crown prosecutors on Monday.
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In March 2025, Salman Khan Shahzad, 47, was charged by Calgary police after an investigation into reports of financial fraud by the Calgary league’s president alleged to have taken place between January 2014 and December 2016.
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Khan was charged with one count of theft over $5,000 and another charge of fraud over $5,000.
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On the first day of his trial,
On the first day of his trial, the Crown prosecutor withdrew all charges against him.
The Crown prosecutor has an ongoing obligation to review all available admissible evidence to ensure the matter meets the standard for prosecution, the Alberta Crown Prosecutor Service said in a statement on the decision to withdraw the charges.
“In this file, the Crown prosecutor determined there was insufficient evidence to proceed to trial and as such, the matter was withdrawn,” the statement said.
Khan was grateful for the Crown conducting
Khan was grateful for the Crown conducting a diligent review of the file, his lawyer, Jim Lutz, said.
They all came to the conclusion the charges couldn’t be proven with the evidence the Crown had, he said.
“Quite simply, it’s a case of the Crown constantly evaluating their file to determine if there’s a reasonable likelihood of conviction,” Lutz said.
In this case, they concluded there wasn’t,
“In this case, they concluded there wasn’t, and they did what they should have done, which is withdrawing the charges, which was an enormous relief to my client because he’d faced lots of public and personal scrutiny over these particular charges.”
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Lutz said Khan was extremely relieved the charges were withdrawn.
“He maintained all the way through that he was not guilty of any offence and that this was a case where all of the issues and the transactions in question could be explained,” Lutz said. “I think he’s very happy that the Crown came to the same conclusion that he’d always maintained.”
Khan is now fighting for Cricket Canada to honour and pay out the remaining money owed from his contract — approximately $475,000.
Lutz said Cricket Canada had been having
Lutz said Cricket Canada had been having a rough go as of late, and he hoped this would calm the waters.
“We want to make sure that the athletes are allowed to play and look forward to them representing individuals in Canada,” Lutz said.
The league’s former treasurer, Syed Wajahat Ali, was also charged with the same offences.
Police said the funds were misappropriated through cheque
Police said the funds were misappropriated through cheque payments to construction businesses connected to the former treasurer and president, or immediate family members they had connections to.
“These payments were allegedly made to the businesses for repairs and upgrades to the (Calgary & District Cricket League) clubhouse and grounds located at Riley Park; however, the work was either never completed, or was done to a substandard quality using inferior products,” police said in a statement last year.
On Dec. 10, 2025, Khan was immediately terminated from his position because he failed to disclose the criminal charges after they were announced.
The act constituted a serious breach of trust
The act “constituted a serious breach of trust — along with violations of organizational bylaws related to his contract,” the Canadian cricket body said in a statement last year.
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Source: calgaryherald.com
