Shoaib terms two matches ban, fine hard
KARACHI: Pakistan’s controversial fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar has finally spoken out on the two-match ban and fine handed to him for tampering with the ball during the triangular tournament in Sri Lanka in May.
In an interview given to an English newspaper, Shoaib says that the ban was pretty hard on him and he was only cleaning the grass off the ball.
**“The only thing I was doing was cleaning the grass off the ball. I think they went pretty hard on me. I accept the laws, they banned me three times. I had to go through legally to prove them wrong about chucking. I thought this time I deserved a bit better than that,” he said.
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Match referee Gundappa Vishwanath banned Shoaib for two matches and fined him 75% of his match fees on the evidence of television replays which suggested the fast bowler was tampering with the ball during a league match.
**The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has already said in reaction to the ban that they believe there is need for greater consistency in the implementation of the code of conduct laws by match-referees in international cricket. **
Shoaib claims his actions were misunderstood.
“Man, you cannot tamper with a Kookaburra,” he says of the ball used on the sub-continent. “You try and put a nail into the surface. It’s so hard, so smooth, your nail just skims off.”
Asked how he knew about the Kookaburra ball and did it mean he had tried in the past to make a few personal re-adjustments? “No, no, but I’ve felt the outside of the ball. The only thing I was doing was cleaning the grass off the ball,” he insisted. “In Sri Lanka I worked so hard to put the team in the final,” he recalls. "And then they said I couldn’t play. I was walking up and down all day, pacing out my run-up in the pavilion, I was abusing and cursing. “I knew if I had been there we would have won comfortably. I was abusing myself, telling myself I had let my country down. 'Just leave the f****** ball alone, man, you know the rules.” Shoaib has decided to skip the coming home series against Bangladesh and has got permission from the Pakistan Board to play for English county Durham until September 17.
