LAHORE: An independent adjudicator on Friday increased the ban on Pakistan’s World Twenty20-winning opener Shahzaib Hasan from one year to four on appeal from the country’s cricket board.

Shahzaib, 28, was banned in February this year after being found guilty of not disclosing a fixing offer to the anti-corruption unit of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). He was also fined Rs100,000,0 ($8,200).

The PCB had appealed the length of the ban, saying it was too lenient.

“The independent adjudicator Justice [retired] 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.

Spot-fixing refers to illegal activity in a sport where a specific part of a game is fixed, unlike match-fixing, where the whole result is fixed.

Shahzaib is one of six players sanctioned in the spot-fixing case which rocked the second edition of Pakistan Super League last year, a Twenty20 tournament.

Swashbuckling opener Sharjeel Khan, Khalid Latif, Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Nawaz, and Nasir Jamshed were also given bans of varying lengths.

Nasir is also charged with other breaches and faces a life ban, a decision likely to be announced next week.

Shahzaib’s lawyer Kashif Rajwana said his client is likely to challenge the decision in court.

Shahzaib played the last of his three ODIs in November 2010. He has also played 10 Twenty20 Internationals for Pakistan, including the World Twenty20 which Pakistan won in 2009.

Shahzaib, like Nasir, now lives in the United Kingdom.

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2018