Sharjeel to challenge appeal dismissal

LAHORE: Pakistan opener Sharjeel Khan’s lawyer said on Thursday they would challenge the dismissal of his appeal against a ban imposed by a tribunal in a higher court.

Sharjeel, 28, was banned for five years, two-and-a-half of them suspended, in August following an investigation by a three-member Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) tribunal. The scandal surfaced during the second edition of the Pakistan Super League in February this year. The league was held in the United Arab Emirates with the final staged in Lahore.

One-man adjudicator Justice Faqir Khokhar upheld the ban late on Wednesday. He also rejected the PCB´s appeal to increase the punishment, which can range from five years to a life ban according to the anti-corruption code.

“The decision is disappointing and we will definitely go to the high court after knowing on what grounds our appeal was rejected,” Sharjeel´s lawyer Shaigan Ijaz told AFP.“The PCB has not been able to prove the spot-fixing and that has halted a promising career,” he added.

Ijaz pointed out that the PCB tribunal had given two options to Sharjeel when they announced the ban, which has restricted their options. “The tribunal had given us either of the two options, first to appeal with an adjudicator or go to the Court of Arbitration. We have used one option, so we cannot go to the CAS now,” he said.

“They (PCB) were unable to prove spot fixing so we will continue to challenge the decision until we get justice,” he said.At the time of the ban, Sharjeel had played one Test, 25 One-day Internationals and 15 Twenty20s for Pakistan.

He was also contracted by English county Leicestershire and was in line for getting more contracts in Twenty20 leagues around the world.Sharjeel was charged with deliberately playing two dot balls — deliveries off which no run is scored — in Islamabad United´s opening match against Peshawar Zalmi in Dubai.

Spot-fixing involves determining the outcome of a specific part of a match rather than the overall result, and is therefore harder to detect than match-fixing. His fellow opener Khalid Latif was banned for five years and fined one million rupees (10,000 dollars) for orchestrating the deal with a bookie.  —With input from agencies