Daily Times

LAHORE: A three-member Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) anti-corruption tribunal on Wednesday slapped batsman Khalid Latif with a five-year ban and Rs.10,00,000/- fine for his role in a spot-fixing scandal during this year’s Pakistan Super League (PSL). The 31-year-old Khalid, who has played five one-day internationals, was charged with six major breaches of the PCB’s anti-corruption code. “The anti-corruption tribunal has found Khalid guilty of all charges,” a spokesman for the PCB said. Khalid’s fellow Islamabad United player Sharjeel Khan also received a five-year ban last month and both were sent home from the Twenty20 competition in the United Arab Emirates after an investigation by the board’s anti-corruption unit. “There are cases you don’t feel happy winning, because it’s unfortunate to see a player being banned. But he is responsible for tarnishing his own career, and all fixing allegations against him have been proved,” the spokesman added.

Like Sharjeel, Latif has been handed the minimum sentence mandatory for the offences he was convicted of, and could have potentially faced a life ban. Unlike Sharjeel, who was banned on August 30 for spot-fixing charges emanating from the same match at the PSL, none of Khalid’s sentence is suspended, meaning the 31-year old cannot return to cricket till at least 2022. It is the harshest punishment meted out so far to a player involved in the PSL spot-fixing saga. Mohammad Irfan and Mohammad Nawaz were also banned, for the relatively lesser indiscretions of failure to report corrupt approaches. Both have since returned to domestic cricket. Irfan was banned for one year with six months suspended and fined one million rupees. Nawaz was banned for two months, with one suspended, and fined 200,000 rupees.

It is interesting to note that not only lawyers of Sharjeel and Khalid, but the critics had objected to the tribunal and its proceedings. Khalid’s lawyer Badar Alam, who has raised several objections throughout the proceedings of his client, did not show up to hear the verdict being announced. Alam had refused to turn up for several hearings during proceedings as well, and had registered a case against the formation of the tribunal set up to adjudicate on Khalid’s case. Both parties have a right to appeal the judgment within 14 days of receiving the detailed decision, which has not been released yet.

Latif’s lawyer Alam said that the tribunal’s decision came in anger as PCB’s lawyer falsely informed the court that the defendant was not cooperating with the ACT. “I don’t know where we didn’t cooperate with the tribunal, we have been present every time there was a hearing,” the lawyer told reporters. “The PCB said that that we were trying to blackmail the tribunal which dismissed all our applications, even then we attended all the proceedings,” he said. “We will study the detailed decision by the tribunal and then decide either to file an appeal or a file a writ petition against it,” the lawyer said.

The three-member anti-corruption tribunal, constituted by the PCB to adjudicate upon the matter, comprised of those personalities who were and are directly involved with the PCB. Ashgar Haider is a former PCB legal counsel, Tauqir Zia is a former PCB chairman while former Test captain Wasim Bari has served the PCB in various capacities including the chief selector. It is also interesting to note that Tauqir Zia’s son is working for the PCB in school cricket arena. Article 5 of the PCB anti-corruption code clearly states: “5.1.2: The Chairman of the PCB shall appoint three members from the Disciplinary Panel and/or any appropriate external lawyers/cricketers/experts as members of the Anti-Corruption Tribunal(which may include the Chairman of the Disciplinary Panel) to form the Anti-Corruption Tribunal to hear the case. One member of the Anti-Corruption Tribunal, who shall be a lawyer, shall sit as the Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Tribunal. The appointed members shall be independent of the parties and shall have had no prior involvement with the case.”

An independent and neutral tribunal, comprising persons with impeccable reputation and having no association with the PCB, should have been formed to conduct the trial. But the PCB did not follow its own anti-corruption code.

A veteran on the domestic circuit – Khalid made his debut 17 years ago when he was still 14 – he has never quite been able to make the grade at international level. He was a rising star on the Unde-19 circuit, captaining the Pakistan side to a World Cup win in 2004. He was called up to the ODI side in 2008, but played just five games over two years. He has not been able to find much more consistency in T20Is, playing 13-over an eight-year period, the last against the West Indies in a home series in 2016. This ban, should it not be reduced or overturned in the event of an appeal, would almost certainly spell the end of Khalid’s international days, and given his age – he will be 36 when the ban ends – make even returning to the domestic circuit a daunting challenge.

Spot-fixing involves bets on the outcome of a particular passage of play, unlike match-fixing in which there is an attempt to prearrange the result of the match. T20 leagues are easy targets for the fixing mafia. There are easy avenues to make quick money and exposure to players is not as restrained as it is during bilateral series or world tournaments.

Published in Daily Times, September 21^st 2017.