Sunday, September 30, 2007
By Khalid Hussain
KARACHI: Shoaib Akhtar seems unlikely to be seen in action on the international stage at least for the remaining part of 2007 after a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) disciplinary committee issued a charge-sheet against the enigmatic pace star on Saturday.
Shafqat Naghmi, PCB’s Chief Operating Officer who heads the disciplinary committee, told ‘The News’ that a show cause notice has been issued to Shoaib asking him to appear before the committee on October 6 at the Board’s headquarters in Lahore.
“We have sent a show cause notice to Shoaib Akhtar in which he has been asked to give an explanation on several allegations against him,” said Naghmi, who met with fellow members of the disciplinary committee — Zakir Khan and Nadeem Akram — to begin proceedings in the case against Shoaib.
The Rawalpindi Express is facing a lengthy ban after a much-publicised dressing room brawl with fellow pacer Mohammad Asif during a Pakistan team’s training session in Johannesburg just before the start of the inaugural World Twenty earlier this month. Shoaib hit Asif with a bat and was later sent back home from South Africa after the team management found him guilty of misconduct. He was also banned for five international matches.
After returning home, Shoaib held a press conference in Lahore and blamed fellow teammate Shahid Afridi for provoking him. Both Asif and Afridi have denied it and claim that Shoaib got enraged without any reason.
Naghmi said that both Asif and Afridi have also been summoned and the committee will record their statements on October 6 before reaching a decision ‘by October 10’. The Board official said that the committee could have settled the case much earlier but had to wait because of the opening Test against South Africa getting underway in Karachi from Monday (tomorrow).
Apart from his dressing room spat with Asif, the committee will also probe Shoaib over ‘another serious allegation’. The pacer allegedly went to England and played in an unauthorised match there during the period when he was supposed to be resting because of fitness problems.
Shoaib, 32, left the national team’s training camp in Karachi last month without informing team manager Talat Ali Malik. He was later fined Rs 300,000 over the incident. However, Shoaib challenged the punishment and claimed that he had informed Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik before leaving the camp.
He filed an appeal and the Board decided to suspend the fine but warned Shoaib that he would be on a six-month probation. “That fine of Rs 300,000 will be imposed automatically because Shoaib violated the PCB code of conduct before the six-month deadline,” said Naghmi.
He refrained from giving any views on the sort of action Shoaib could be facing saying that the committee’s aim is to help discipline the players rather than punishing him. However, PCB sources told this correspondent that allegations against Shoaib are of a serious nature and there is a strong chance that he will not be able to take any part in the ongoing home series against South Africa and will also miss the important tour of India in November-December this year.
“Shoaib is facing a minimum six-month ban and a hefty fine because the allegations especially the one which says that he played in an unauthorized match in England after skipping a training camp back home are of quite a serious nature,” said a source.
Sources say that Shoaib, who has 169 Test wickets from 43 matches and 208 ODI scalps, has also become quite unpopular with most of his teammates which is why the Board is unlikely to show him much sympathy this time.
Comment: Even though I hate lose his pace its a much needed decision.
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