Cricketer Shahzaib gets one year ban and Rs one million fine

LAHORE, Feb 28 (APP):Pakistan Cricket Board’s anti corruption
tribunal here on Wednesday banned cricketer Shahzaib Hasan for one
year and fined him Rs 1 million for his role in spot-fixing during
the second edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) last year in
United Arab Emirates.
The 27-year old opener who was charged on three violations of
code of PCB anti corruption code, was found guilty on two counts
of breaching Clause 2.4.4, which deals with a failure to disclose
corrupt approaches, and one count of Clause 2.4.5, failure to report
any incident a player is aware of that will amount to a breach of
the anti-corruption code.
Shahzaib who represented Pakistan in three one-day internationals
and 10, T20 matches, is the sixth player who has been punished in the
spot fixing scandal that rocked the PSL last year. Sharjeel Khan was
banned for five years, Khalid Latif was also banned for five years,
Mohammad Irfan for one year , Mohammad Nawaz for two month and Nasir
Jamshed for one year as the of them got punihsments according
to their role and involvement in the spot fixing scandal.
He was suspended last year on March 17 and PCB’s anti-corruption
unit charged him for violating three clauses of its anti-corruption
code: for luring cricketers into the scam, not reporting approaches
by the bookies, and hiding information regarding his contacts with
the bookies.
Shahzaib was not found guilty of breaching the far more serious
Clause 2.1.4, which involves “directly or indirectly soliciting,
inducing, enticing, instructing, persuading, encouraging or intentionally facilitating
any participant to breach any of the foregoing provisions
of this Article 2.1.” That would have likely led to a significantly
longer ban.
“PCB is taking every step to clean the game of cricket from ill practices and we
strongly believe that PCB has dealt the spot fixing scandal with an iron hand as all of
its characters have been given punishments according to their role in it “,said PCB’s
legal advisor Taffazul Rizvi while talking to the media after the verdict of the
case.
Shahzaib was suspended by the PCB on March 18 last year and in
the given circumstances, his ban will end in coming three weeks times.
“We are waging a war against corrupt practices in cricket and
PCB has zero tolerance for any such negative practice”, he said.
When asked that Shahzaib’s ban will be ending, he said “This
does not mean that he would resume his cricket career as soon as
possible”.
“His ban may end on March 17, but remember that according to the anti-corruption
code, you have to go through a rehabilitation process.
The first step towards beginning rehabilitation is the acceptance of
guilt. If he does not accept that he was guilty, then his rehabilitation process cannot begin.”
The tribunal hearing the case against Shahzaib had reserved its
verdict on January 31.