PCB chief clamps six-month ban, fine on Rashid Latif
By our correspondent
KARACHI: It was an “Ash Wednesday” for Pakistan cricket and former captain Rashid Latif when the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Shaharyar Khan took the unilateral and harsh decision of banning him for six months from first class cricket.
The unilateral decision highlighted the extent to which the grudge the cricket establishment has carried against Rashid for long now and Shaharyar only confirmed this when using his discretionary powers he let off the Karachi Blues team without a fine or warning but nailed Rashid.
The rancor was also obvious in Sharharyar?s decision when he later said that Rashid had the right to appeal in a weeks time against the ban but this would be heard by PCB the disciplinary committee headed by Justice (retd) Karamat Bhandari and including two other judges. “They will take a decision on his appeal,” he said.
This raises the million dollar question why was the disciplinary committee not consulted or brought into action when the board had decided only Rashid was to blame for the fiasco that occurred in Faisalabad last Saturday.
And was it fair to impose such a ban without first giving Rashid a chance to plead his case in person?
Rashid got the ban and a fine of Rs 15,000 for conceding a Quaid-e-Azam trophy match while captaining his Karachi Blues against Faisalabad.
He refused to carry on with the match after declaring the Karachi innings on 4 for 40 on the first day claiming the pitch was dangerous and unfit for play and he didn?t want to risk a grievious injury to any of his players.
“The Chairman of the PCB has taken serious notice of the breach of playing conditions by Rashid Latif and given his past record has decided to impose a fine of 15,000 on him and ban him for six months from all first-class cricket,” Pakistan Cricket Board spokesman Abbas Zaidi said.
Interestingly there is no rule or regulation in domestic cricket that justifies a six months ban on a captain for any violation.
What the rule and regulations clearly state that if a match is conceded, the points scored by the defaulting team during the tournament for and against will be nullified and the team will be scratched from the tournament and demoted, in addition to a fine of Rs 15,000 shall be imposed."
But if ever anyone made his personal grudge obvious it was Shaharyar when it was stated in a PCB press release: “The Chairman has taken serious notice of the breach of playing conditions by the Karachi B captain and has noted that it is not for the first time that Rashid Latif has acted in such a preciptious manner.” “The Chairman has therefore decided to impose a fine of Rs 15,000 on Rashid and ban him for six months from all first class cricket from December 1, 2004. In view of the fact that Rashid Latif appears to have acted independently the Chairman has exercised his discretion in deciding that the Karachi B team would be allowed to continue participating in the Quaid Trophy and that no fine or restriction would be imposed on them for a breach of playing conditions.”
Which basically means that Shaharyar has held Rashid solely responsible for everything when anyone who knows and understands cricket knows very well that a decision like conceding a match to protest a unfit pitch can never be taken by just the captain and other players have to be involved.
There is no doubt that Rashid deserved to be disciplined, but not like this and even a layman can sense the reasons behind such a harsh decision because not to the board?s liking Rashid, who has played 37 tests and 166 one-day internationals was in serious contention to earn a recall to the Pakistan team for coming tours after performing consistently well in domestic cricket.
What is sad is that in the past other players have committed graver offences in domestic cricket and still not been penalized so harshly.
And even the Board showed where it stands when it comes to the vicious cycle of players power in the senior team when although fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar refused to sign a central contract he still left for Australia.
Rashid for his part was naturally stunned by the decision but simply stated he had sent his written appeal to the Chairman for a review of the decision.
“I don?t want to go into the details of this ban. Everyone knows the reasons. I know that in all honesty I took the decision to stop the Faisalabad match because the pitch was dangerous and unplayable for batting and anyone could have been badly injured. You don?t wait in such circumstances for a player to be seriously injured when conditions are not suitable for a first class match.”
Unless the ban is revised Rashid is now out of contention for the test series in Australia starting this month and next year?s tours of India and West Indies.
“I am disappointed that I was not given a chance to plead my case nor was any member of the Karachi team called to give evidence. It is a unilateral and biased decision,” he added.
Shaharyar said he took the decision on the basis of information provided to him by the match referee, umpires, the Chairman of the Domestic Tournament Monitoring Committee (DTMC) and a national selector Ehteshamuddin who were all present at the ground.
When asked how had he taken the decision without hearing out Rashid, Shaharyar said he had gone through the letter written by Rashid to the match referee after conceding the match to Faisalabad.
“I formed my decision on that basis,” he claimed.
Rashid said he had sent an appeal to the board.
“I have appealed against the decision which is very harsh. I admit and regret I may have acted impulsively but still such a ban will destroy any chances of a Pakistan comeback for me and ruin my career,” he said.
“I acted purely out of concern for my players and spoke to the match officials about the condition of the pitch,” he insisted.
Rashid has been no stranger to controversy during his career, which started in 1992. Among other incidents, he lifted the lid of a match-fixing scandal in 1995 and was banned for five one-day matches for wrongly claiming a catch in a game against Bangladesh last year and this year in March rubbed his teammates the wrong way when he claimed that the fourth one-day international against India in Lahore could have been fixed.
:k:
I don’t believe that,His performance has declined plus he’s more overwhelmed with his other activities,