Fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar has escaped disciplinary action over a clash with Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene during the Sharjah Champions Trophy final, a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official said on Tuesday.
A member of the PCB disciplinary committee, which met in Lahore on Monday to discuss the incident said no action would be taken against Akhtar.
Akhtar exchanged words with Jayawardene during the game on November 4, won by Pakistan by five wickets, after the batsman hit his first ball for a six.
When Shoaib dismissed him in the same over, Wasim Akram had to step in to defuse the situation.
``Basically we considered the fact that the match referee in Sharjah, Dennis Lindsay, did not even reprimand him and later Akhtar also publicly apologised to Sri Lankan batsman Mahela Jayawardene for causing him any hurt in the heat of the moment,‘’ the committee member said.
The panel’s decision, which has yet to be announced officially by the board, clears up one of the clouds hanging over the bowler’s career.
He has been reported for a suspect bowling action twice this year, the first time during a one day match in New Zealand in March and again during the Sharjah tournament.
A repeat in the next few months could see him facing a 12-month ban.
Akhtar was banned from the game in November 1999 after he was reported for throwing in the third test against Australia in Perth.
He returned to the side a month later after the International Cricket Council (ICC) reversed the decision.
The ICC has told Shoaib must work on his bowling action with former West Indian fast bowler Michael Holding, who will submit a report by February.
The PCB is challenging the decision, saying medical experts have already ruled that Shoaib has an unusually flexible arm which gives the impression of an irregular bowling action.
The Pakistani bowler, nicknamed the ``Rawlpindi Express,‘’ has been vying for the title of the world’s fastest bowler in recent seasons with Australian Brett Lee.