August 15, 2007	Wednesday	Sha’aban 1, 1428

LAHORE, Aug 14: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has appointed another non-independent, two-member appellate tribunal to hear the appeal of fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar against the Rs300,000 fine imposed on him for allegedly leaving the national training camp in Karachi on Aug 4.

The tribunal comprising Mueen Afzal and Imtiaz Ahmed, both members of the PCB ad hoc committee, is expected to start its hearing after Aug 17 and is expected to announce its decision before the start of the national training camp in Lahore from Aug 21 in preparation for the first Twenty20 World Championship.

Earlier, a disciplinary committee that was set up only after the Shoaib episode and which comprises PCB staff, imposed the fine on Shoaib. In sharp contrast of this practice, the PCB earlier had an independent chairman who could be a retired judge familiar with the norms of justice, heading its disciplinary committee.

It was reported on Monday that Shoaib filed his appeal with PCB’s Chief Operating Officer Shafqat Naghmi, informing him that he skipped training after telling Pakistan skipper Shoaib Malik. In order to confirm Shoaib’s statement, the tribunal is likely to involve the captain too now.

Dawn, however, has learned through reliable sources that when Shoaib had informed his captain, the latter had advised him to also bring it to the notice of the camp-commandant, which he did not do.

Sources further revealed that the disciplinary committee wrongly dealt with the case by applying the clauses of the International Cricket Council (ICC), which match-referees exercise in dealing with disciplinary cases during tournaments.

“The disciplinary committee gave only 24 hours to Shoaib after issuing the notice to appear before it. Any player can be produced before the ICC match referee in 24 hours during matches because they all are staying in the same hotel. But the situation is different here,” the sources said.

The disciplinary committee, which announced Rs100,000 as fine on Shoaib for his first act of missing the camp, added another Rs200,000 as more fine for not appearing before the disciplinary committee within 24 hours. In addition to this, as has been mentioned earlier as well, the committee also docked 1.5 points from Shoaib’s discipline account to reduce it to 1.5 from the total of 20 under the newly signed central contract.

Later, Shoaib also complained of not receiving the notice to appear before the committee on time.

Sources also said the disciplinary committee did not summon Shoaib for hearing as surprisingly Talat Ali signed the summon order.

“Talat, after lodging the complaint against Shoaib, has become a party and so he has no authority to summon Shoaib for hearing as it was the job of the disciplinary committee to call all the parties,” sources said while pointing out another big flaw in dealing with the case.

Sources further added the appointment of two ad hoc committee members reflects the PCB’s intention to exonerate the bowler on the benefit of doubt.

The PCB’s decision of not taking any action against Shoaib for using harsh words against the board’s officials in front of their offices on Friday was also taken as averting further controversy, sources added.