LAHORE, Jan 18: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has shown a great liking for England-based lawyer Mark Gay, paying him a whopping 300,000 pounds sterling (Rs30 million) for two recent cases.
Gay was first hired by the former PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan to plead Inzamam-ul-Haq's case before the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Inzamam was facing two charges — ball-tampering and bringing the game into disrepute in the fourth Test against England at the Oval.
Inzamam's men were accused of ball-tampering by ground umpire Darrell Hair and were charged under Level-II. As a result, Hair imposed five-run penalty on Pakistan. Inzamam protested and staged a boycott but the ICC considered his act as a Level-III offence.
Though Gay failed to get Inzamam cleared of the Level-III offence, he charged around 250,000 pounds.
It is worth mentioning that various prominent lawyers of the country offered their services free of cost to defend Inzaman but the PCB preferred Gay.
After Shaharyar's resignation, PCB’s new boss Dr Nasim Ashraf surprised everyone by hiring Gay to assist PCB's appointed appellate tribunal, headed by Justice Fakharuddin G. Ebrahim, hearing appeals of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif against their bans.
Some reliable sources told Dawn that the PCB hired Gay without consultation of Justice Ebrahim. He was surprised when he found Gay in the first meeting of the appellate tribunal held at the National Cricket Academy in November.
The judge informed the PCB that he did not need any foreign assistance in the case. Therefore, Gay stayed in Pakistan for only one night for which he charged around 43,000 pounds.
Interestingly, Shahid Hamid's anti-doping commission, which banned the two fast bowlers, had also been offered the assistance of Gay, which it refused.
Moreover, Gay is set to receive more money as the PCB has hired him again to contest the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) challenge case against the exoneration of Shoaib and Asif. No one knows what the PCB will pay him now for the assignment.
