LAHORE: The anti-corruption tribunal of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Wednesday imposed a five-year ban on batsman Khalid Latif along with a fine of Rs1million for his involvement in the spot-fixing scandal which erupted in this season’s Pakistan Super League (PSL).

The 31-year-old was found guilty on all six breaches of PCB’s anti-corruption code and the punishment all but ends Khalid’s playing career, barely a year after cementing his place in Pakistan’s Twenty20 squad.

Despite the period of Khalid’s ban backdated to begin from February 10, when the scandal broke out, it is highly unlikely that Khalid, who made his One-day International debut in 2008, would be able to mount a comeback and now faces a premature retirement after making just 18 appearances for Pakistan across the two limited-over formats.

“All sanctions imposed shall run concurrently,” the three-member tribunal said in its order. “The period of suspension, undergone by the participant, shall stand deducted from the sentence imposed. The fine of Rs1million imposed upon Khalid Latif shall be payable to the PCB.”

Khalid, along with fellow batsman Sharjeel Khan, was provisionally suspended and sent back home after the PCB found evidence of spot-fixing during the PSL match between Islamabad United and Peshawar Zalmi in Dubai.

Two other players — Shahzaib Hasan and Nasir Jamshed — have also been implicated in the scandal, while fast bowler Mohammad Irfan was fined and given a one-year ban in March this year.

Last month, the tribunal had slapped a five-year ban on Sharjeel for similar offences but while it kept half of Sharjeel’s five-year ban suspended, Khalid did not receive any leniency.

While the tribunal accepted all five charges against Sharjeel brought up by the PCB, in Khalid’s case it found the batsman guilty of an additional charge of luring other players — in this case Sharjeel — to take part in fixing.

In the aforementioned match, Sharjeel agreed to play two dot balls in the first over. Khalid did not play that game but was charged with luring Sharjeel into the deal and not reporting the matter to the PCB anti-corruption unit.

A PCB official, on the condition of anonymity, told Dawn that the punishment given to Sharjeel was less compared to the charges he was facing.

“The tribunal was also wrong in giving Sharjeel a suspended period because the minimum punishment period is five years,” he added.

“Only if the punishment is above five years, there can be a suspended period,” he informed, referring to the bans handed out by the ICC in the infamous spot-fixing scandal of 2010 involving Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir.

“The code of conducts of the PCB and the ICC are almost the same. A five-year ban is the minimum [which Amir served completely], while Salman and Asif served bans of 10 and seven years with five and two years suspended.”

PCB’s legal advisor Taffazul Rizvi, meanwhile, said all six charges on Khalid had been proved right and the cricketer had the right to appeal against the decision in next 14 days.

Rizvi added that the PCB had no authority to punish bookie Yousuf, an English national of Pakistani-origin, who made the spot-fixing plan with Pakistan discard Nasir, who is being grilled by England’s National Crime Authority in the same case.

Khalid’s lawyer Badr Alam, who has repeatedly said he has no confidence on the PCB tribunal headed by retired Justice Asghar Haider, was not present when the verdict was announced.

Meanwhile, the hearing continued in Shahzaib’s case and has been deferred for Friday.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2017