Test skipper wants life bans for fixers

KARACHI: Pakistan’s Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq on Sunday said that in order to eradicate the menace of corruption in cricket there should be life bans on the players who make such a blunder.

“I think there should be a life ban,” Misbah told reporters here at National Stadium on Sunday.

Misbah is in the port city and is representing Faisalabad in their Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Grade-II match against Hyderabad.

“If such things are being repeated then I think there is a need for steps which could at least prevent the culprits from staging a comeback to international cricket once they commit such a crime,” said Misbah, who will lead Pakistan in the forthcoming series against the West Indies.

“In the last six to seven years, we did try to rebuild the image which had been shattered in 2010. The way we played in the series against England and showed discipline, both on and off the field, was exemplary. And when such things happen again, it means the efforts we had made for the revival of our image have been wasted,” Misbah added.

He said that they would have to be more careful in the future. “We will have to be more careful in the future and those players who struggled during the last six years in reviving the image of their country will have to make concerted efforts to once again rebuild the lost image by leaving the recent incident behind,” he said.

The recently-concluded Pakistan Super League (PSL) was rocked by spot-fixing when Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) suspended international openers Sharjeel Khan and Khalid Latif who were representing Islamabad United which were captained by Misbah.

The two players were sent back home from Dubai. The PCB later also suspended discarded Test opener Nasir Jamshed. And most recently the Board further expanded the canvas by suspending left-arm Test pacer Mohammad Irfan and hard-hitting international opener Shahzaib Hasan.

Misbah said that playing in Grade-II tournament was necessary for his side Faisalabad and for his own practice ahead of the West Indies series. “I think Faisalabad needs to qualify for the first-class cricket and I also needed some practice ahead of the Test series against the West Indies.”