Pak to review players’ penalties
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief assured MPs on Monday that the body would review fines and bans
imposed on seven top players after receiving a report from a one-man arbitration panel.
A sports committee from the lower house met to investigate allegations of match-fixing and off-field problems on Pakistan’s recent tour of Australia that led to the penalties against the players.
“The committee meeting was very constructive and we assured them on reviewing the penalties on the players but after getting the arbitrator’s report,” PCB chairman Ijaz Butt told reporters.
Butt was referring to a one-man arbitration panel — retired judge Irfan Qadir — who is hearing appeals lodged by six of the players.
Former captains Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf were banned indefinitely on charges of “infighting which resulted in a negative influence on the team.”
Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved-ul Hasan were banned for a year and fined $24,000 each for disciplinary breaches.
Pakistan’s Twenty20 captain Shahid Afridi and Kamran Akmal were fined $35,000 each and placed on probation for six months.
Umar Akmal was fined two million rupees.
The penalties came after an evaluation committee investigated Pakistan’s tours of the UAE, New Zealand and Australia between November 2009 to February this year.
Pakistan lost all three Tests, five one-day and a Twenty20 in Australia, prompting the PCB to investigate the defeats.
Yousuf retired from cricket in protest, but the other players lodged appeals with the PCB-appointed tribunal.
Butt reiterated his stance on match-fixing, insisting there had been no wrongdoing despite allegations over Pakistan's defeat in January’s Sydney Test. — AFP
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