Pakistan banned all-rounder Asif Afridi from all cricket for a period of two years on Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to two violations of the board’s anti-corruption code. While announcing the decision, the PCB said it considered Afridi’s request to consider his case compassionately. He claimed he had unintentionally breached the code.
‘Afridi has been handed a two-year period of ineligibility, while he was given a six-month ban for the violation of a second clause’, the Pakistan Cricket Board said in a statement. Afridi was initially suspended in September last year over failing to report an approach ‘to engage in corrupt conduct’ during the National Twenty20 tournament.
The 36-year-old was part of a squad to face Australia in limited-over matches last year, but did not play in any of them. Pakistan cricket has a history of match-fixing bans, with a judicial inquiry banning former skipper Salim Malik and seamer Ata-ur-Rehman for life and fining six top cricketers — including Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis — in 2000.
Salman Butt, who was then the team’s skipper, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif were banned for five years in a spot-fixing case in England in 2010. Two years later, leg-spinner Danish Kaneria was banned for life over a spot-fixing case in English country cricket. In the more recent past, Umar Akmal, Sharjeel Khan, Khalid Latif, Shahzaib Hasan, Mohammad Nawaz and Mohammad Irfan were also banned in various spot-fixing cases.
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