The Pakistan Cricket Board has taken in the recommendations of the probe
that was conducted by the enquiry committee and has banned the two former captains
of the Pakistan team, Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf for life. The probe
had been headed by former Pakistani cricketer and now COO of the PCB, Wasim Bari,
and had recommended a whole list of punishments for the Pakistani players.
The punishments that have been announced are as follows:
1. Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan: The pair has been banned from international
cricket for life. Of course, the PCB has not called it a life ban, because the
players can still be a part of the domestic cricket apart from being eligible
to play in county cricket, but nothing beyond that. The reason behind the banning
was that there was a lot of in-fighting in the side, and the players' power
was causing a havoc, by trickling down to the junior players.
2. Shoaib Malik and Naved-ul-Hasan Rana: The pair was banned by the PCB for
a period of one year only. However, it could have been very easily quite more
than for Malik, especially after the kind of stories that have emanated from
the Pakistani dressing room and the fans. Rana pays the price for some real
indiscipline within the side.
3. Kamran Akmal: Kamran Akmal has been fined a sum of Rs. 3 million,
for questioning and going against the Board's decision. His wicket-keeping had
come under a lot of flak and he had been dropped for the third Test match, but
went to the media and said that he will be playing in the game. Repeatedly,
he kept defying the court orders and hence was fined.
4. Umar Akmal: Kamran's brother tried to feign that he was injured and miss
the third game after Kamran had been dropped. In the end, he did play, but not
before he had an adverse report against him and he was fined by the PCB, Rs.2
million.
5. Shahid Afridi: Fined a sum of Rs.3 million for biting into the ball. He was
accused of ball tampering and was banned by the ICC for a couple of games, and
the PCB has added a fine to it for bringing Pakistan cricket to disrepute.
Many former Pakistani cricketers think that the decision is a right one given
that the players' power was increasing in the ranks, and causing problems. It
is evident that both, Yousuf and Younis will challenge the decision in the court.
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