Lahore: The Pakistan Cricketing Board (PCB) took a u-turn today on fixing time frame for ban imposed on former captains, Younis Khan and Muhammad Yousaf. PCB said there was no specified term on the ban in the recommendations made by the probe committee. As and when the PCB deems appropriate, these players will be considered for selection for the national team, PCB said.
“Media has interpreted the first recommendations of the inquiry committee regarding Younis and Yousaf as being a life ban on these two players from playing for Pakistan.”
“PCB clarifies that the recommendation of the Committee is not a life ban on these cricketers”, said a spokesman of the PCB in Lahore on Wednesday.
“There is no specified term in the recommendation for these two players. As and when the PCB deems appropriate, these players will be considered for selection for the national team”, he added.
ON Younis, Yousaf bans, the probe committee said, “keeping in view their infighting which resulted in bringing down the whole team, their attitude has a trickle down effect which is a bad influence for the whole team should not be part of national team in any format.” Obviously no mention of time frame was made because it is well understood it meant a timeless (permanent, albeit life-term) punishment”, said one cricket observer.
Earlier, the board’s legal adviser Taffazul Rizvi told the Associated Press, “Younis and Yousuf both cannot represent Pakistan in any international games, but they can play in domestic cricket and compete in county cricket.”
Both Yousuf and Younis were involved in infighting while on tour, which resulted in bringing down the whole team, the PCB said in a statement.
“Their attitude has a trickle down effect which is a bad influence for the whole team,” it said.
The PCB said it will implement the recommendations of an inquiry committee for 12-month bans to Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved and heavy fine on Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal and Umar Akmal.
The inquiry committee comprised PCB chief operating officer Wasim Bari, board member Wazir Ali Khoja, director of cricket operations Zakir Khan, team manager Yawar Saeed and Rizvi.
The penalties were the largest handed out in almost 10 years, since Justice Qayyum’s report on match-fixing in 2000 when Salim Malik and Ata-ur-Rehman were handed life bans and several players including Wasim Akram and now national coach Waqar Younis were fined.

Karachi: Kareena Kapoor aka Bebo, a Bollywood style icon, has made her presence felt in the fashion circuit across the Indo-Pak border in neighboring Pakistan.




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New Delhi: “She suckered us. Suckered us…..this woman suckered us.” So said an enraged US president Richard Nixon of Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi after learning that war had broken out on the subcontinent on Dec 3, 1971, and Indian forces had made a decisive push towards then East Pakistan that it recognised as Bangladesh three days later.
LAHORE: Cricketer Mohammad Asif has tied the knot with close friend Sana Hilal here.
LAHORE/NEW YORK: It seems to be all over for temperamental Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, as the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has not included him in the list of 30 probables for ICC World T20 Championship scheduled to be held in West Indies in April.
The flow of high-grade intelligence from Pakistan’s leading security organization that has led to the recent capture or death of a dozen top Taliban chiefs was the result of high-level pressure from Saudi Arabia, diplomatic sources said.
Pakistan played a role in helping Iran arrest its most wanted Jundallah chief Abdolmalek Rigi who was seized on board a flight from Dubai, Islamabad’s ambassador to Tehran Mohammad Abbasi said on Wednesday.

