Pakistan Cricket Board to review Saleem Malik's life ban

KARACHI: The Pakistan Cricket Board will review the life ban for match fixing imposed on the country's former captain Saleem Malik on the recommendation of a judicial inquiry commission, PCB chairman Najam Sethi said on Tuesday.

"Malik has approached us and told us he has been cleared by a court. He has sent some documents to us and we are studying them," Sethi told PTV Sports. "I have told him to come and meet me in the next few days as we are ready to review his case."

Malik was one of three international captains, along with South Africa's Hansie Cronje and India's Mohammad Azharuddin, to be given life bans from all forms of cricket after Delhi police discovered evidence in 2000 that Cronje had accepted money from a bookmaker to throw matches.

During a subsequent enquiry into the scandal, Cronje, who died in a plane crash in 2002, named Malik, , as one of the players involved in a deal with a bookmaker.

Malik, who has always denied any wrongdoing, filed an appeal in the Lahore High Court in 2001 which rejected his case. He than approached the Supreme Court which ordered a lower court to decide on his case.

"After a seven-year struggle in 2008, on the orders of the Supreme Court, the sessions court declared my ban illegal," the 51-year-old Malik, who played 103 tests and 283 one-day internationals, told Reuters.

However, he claimed that despite the court decision, previous board chairmen had not been briefed properly by PCB officials about his case and it had theefore not been reviewed.

"I have just asked the board to give me a fair hearing and then decide whether the ban should be removed," he said on Tuesday.

"I am happy I am finally getting a chance to state my case because for the last few years no one on the board has tried to hear me out despite several reminders," Malik added.

Sethi said the PCB had also sought advice from the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Malik's case.

"If like he says he has got a decision from the court then we can look at his case as presently our legal team is studying his case and documents," he added.

As a result of the ban, Malik was rejected for the post of batting coach when he applied in 2012.

He was also recently refused permission by the PCB to hold a benefit match for former test bowler Ehteshamuddin.

Source: Reuters