LAHORE - Spot fixer Khalid Latif has been banned for five year and fined Rs one million for his role in the spot fixing scandal, which rocked the Pakistan Super League (PSL) earlier this year in United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) tribunal headed by Justice (r) Syed Asghar Haider and Lt Gen (r) Tauqir Zia and Wasim Bari as its members handed over the punishment to batsman in a short judgment here on Wednesday. The batsman was charged with six major breaches of the PCB anti-corruption code and was found guilty of all of them.
“It’s another sad day as another player’s cricketing career has been ruined due to his involvement in the spot-fixing, which brought bad name to the country,” said PCB lawyer Tafazul Rizvi, while talking to media after the tribunal announced its verdict. He said in case of success in some cases, a lawyer never feels delighted and he feels the same in the case of Khalid, who was a national cricketer.
He said Khalid has been banned for five years for playing all types of cricket, which means the end of 31-year old player’s career as the bans ends in 2022. “We proved all the allegations, all of the six, but still it is the choice/prerogative of the tribunal to decide the nature (time frame) of punishment,” he said.
He agreed to a questioner that the punishment given to the batsman is of minimum level and it is common practice to award maximum level of punishment, if someone is proved guilty on all counts.
The PCB leveled the following charges against Khalid Latif. (1) Breach of Article 2.1.1 of the code by agreeing to fix aspects of PSL match played between Islamabad United and Peshawar Zalmi on February 9, 2017.
(2) Breach of Article 2.1.2 of the code by ensuring for betting and for other corrupt purposes the occurrence of particular incident in the PSL match played between Islamabad United and Peshawar.
(3) Breach of Article 2.1.3 of the code by seeking and agreeing to accept bribe and/or other reward. (c) To fix aspects of the PSL match between Islamabad and Peshawar. (d) For betting and /other corrupt purposes the occurrence of a particular incident in the PSL match between Islamabad and Peshawar.
(4) Breach of Article 2.1.4 of the code by directly or indirectly soliciting, enticing , instructing persuading , encouraging and or/ intentionally facilitating Sharjeel Khan to breach articles 2.1.1, 2.1.2 and 2.1.3 of the code in respect of the PSL match played between Islamabad and Peshawar on Sep 2, 2017.
(5) Breach of article 2.4.4 by failing to disclose to the PCB vigilance and security department (without unnecessary delay) full details of the approaches and invitations received by Khalid Latif to engage in corrupt conduct under the code in respect of PSL match played between Islamabad and Peshawar.
(6) Breach of article 2.4.5 by failing to disclose to the PCB vigilance and security department (without unnecessary delay) full details of the approaches and invitations received by Sharjeel Khan to engage in corrupt conduct under the code in respect of PSL match played between Islamabad and Peshawar.
“All sanctions imposed shall run concurrently and the fine imposed will be payable to the Pakistan Cricket Board,” said the short decision issued by the PCB on Wednesday. Another character of the same spot-fixing scandal Sharjeel Khan was also banned for five years a few-week ago by the same tribunal after proving guilty of all the five charges framed against him.
Khalid’s lawyer Badar Alam was not present to hear the verdict. Alam rejected the verdict and said: "The short decision proves that the tribunal is not impartial. They had made up their mind to punish Latif. We will decide our plans only after the detailed judgment comes."