Pakistan cricket stars banned for life

| Thursday March 11, 2010 00:00

The Pakistan Cricket Board's inquiry into the tour of Australia found the pair had been involved in 'infighting which... brought down the whole team'.

Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and Shoaib Malik each face one-year bans and big fines.

Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal and Umar Akmal also face heavy fines while their conduct will be strictly monitored during a six-month probationary period.

The PCB has implemented the recommendations of an inquiry committee formed to evaluate Pakistan's dismal performance against Australia during the winter, when they lost all nine internationals. Pakistan must now try to defend their ICC World Twenty20 crown in the Caribbean next month with severely depleted resources, particularly among the batsmen, before facing what could be a chastening tour of England. But the PCB was unrepentant, saying in a statement: 'This will go a long way to arrest the continuing decline of Pakistan cricket and improve the state of cricket in Pakistan.'

The inquiry, which also covered the Afridi 'ball-biting' incident in Perth, detailed its sanctions against the seven players in an e-mail issued from its Lahore offices. It said it had passed judgement 'after careful and detailed analysis of the events, the personal accounts of the team management and players and examination of record, videos and statistics'. One PCB official later clarified the terms of the bans. Taffazul Rizvi, the board's legal advisor, told Cricinfo: 'They will not be part of any Pakistan team in any format from here on... They can play domestic cricket or county cricket here and abroad.'

Younus stepped down from the captaincy twice last year, with reports of player unrest about his style of leadership liberally strewn across the media.

Yousuf, the third-highest run scorer in Pakistan Test history, led a winless tour to Australia before falling out publicly with Twenty20 skipper Malik.

The PCB has not expanded upon the cases of indiscipline that have led to the bans on Malik and Rana Naved.However, the cases of the Akmal brothers and Shahid Afridi are more clear-cut. The Akmals were fined for their behaviour after the Sydney Test. Wicketkeeper Kamran, insisted publicly he would be selected in the run-up to the third Test after being dropped from the side. Younger brother Umar was alleged to have feigned an injury to not play the Test in protest, though he did eventually play.

Afridi was punished for the bizarre incident in the Perth one-day international, when as a stand-in captain of the side, he bit the ball in a novel approach to the banned art of ball-tampering.

He had already been punished by the ICC, who immediately gave him a two-match ban. Rashid Latif, a former captain, expected those most harshly treated to win their cases.

'You can't hand out such severe punishments to players of the calibre of Yousuf and Younus Khan,' Latif said.Inzamam-ul-Haq, yet another former captain and no stranger to controversy himself, was also scathing of the decision.

'Why was action not taken earlier against these players?' he asked. 'Why did the board keep quiet for so long when the team was on tour?'

But the PCB's general media manager, Nadeem Sawar, denied it had acted in a draconian fashion.'This is not a harsh decision because the committee has recommended that these steps are necessary and mandatory to keep the team in order,' he said. (BBC)