Lahore - The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has extended Shahzaib Hasan’s ban from one year to four years in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) spot-fixing case.

Shahzaib was banned for a year and fined Rs1 million after being declared guilty in a spot-fixing scandal in the 2017 edition of the PSL. He had appealed against the fine of Rs 1 million, which was heard by Justice (R) Hamid Hasan. But it has badly gone against him as the fine was maintained and the ban was increased four times. The cricketer has already served a year’s ban and will stay away from the game for three years.

The PCB had appealed the length of the ban, saying it was too lenient. "The independent adjudicator Justice (R) Hamid Hussain has accepted the PCB's appeal and lifted the ban to four years while upholding the fine," the board's legal adviser Taffazul Rizvi told media.

Hasan's lawyer Kashif Rajwana said that his client is likely to challenge the decision in court. “The 28-year-old cricketer has decided to challenge this decision as well.”

Shahzaib played 3 ODIs and 10 T20 Internationals for Pakistan and last donned the green jersey 8 years ago. He was charged for violating three clauses of PCB’s anti-corruption code – for luring cricketers into the scam, not reporting approaches by the bookies, and hiding information regarding his contacts with the bookies. He was the fifth player to be sidelined due to the connection in the spot-fixing along with Khalid Latif and Sharjeel Khan and fast bowler M Irfan and all-rounder M Nawaz.

It looks tough for Hasan to restart his international career now. In the limited opportunities, he failed to impress in 2010 and was eventually dropped after averaging only 11.6 in T20Is. Also in three 50-over matches, he couldn’t get going and scored only 100 runs with a solitary half-century and was never seen again until PSL started.