PCB lifts Shoaib Malik ban

The Pakistan Cricket Board lifted Shaoib Malk’s 12-month ban for ill-discipline, making the former captain available for selection to the national team.

“I have decided to uphold his appeal and remove the ban as the board has extensively monitored his behavior in the last three months,” PCB arbitrator and retired judge Irfan Qadir told reporters in Lahore.

Qadir said the board had noticed a marked improvement in Malik’s behavior and attitude, and halved a two million rupee ($23,500) fine imposed on the all rounder to one million rupees.

The PCB appointed Qadir as the arbitrator/appeals judge after they banned and fined seven players in March following a probe into the team’s troubled tour of Australia early this year.

“I was shocked when they imposed the ban and it was not acceptable to me. But I am happy that I have been vindicated now,” Malik told a local news channel.

“I am delighted this stigma of a ban has been removed from my name,”

The board imposed 12-month bans and fines on Malik and all rounder Rana Naved as well as indefinite bans on former captains Younus Khan and Muhammad Yousuf.

Current captain Shahid Afridi and wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal were each fined three million rupees and Umar Akmal two million.

All the players with the exception of Yousuf, who announced his retirement from international cricket, have appealed against their bans and fines.

National selectors included Malik and Younus in a list of 35 probables for the Asia Cup one-day tournament and test tour to England with the final squads due to announced on June 2.

However, Qadir said he would not be able to conduct Younus’s hearing until June 5 following a request by the player’s lawyer to delay proceedings.