Pakistan:Danish Kaneria goes to court against PCB
KARACHI: Danish Kaneria on Saturday filed a court petition against Pakistan Cricket Board for not allowing him to resume his international career despite being cleared in a spot-fixing case.
The Pakistan leg-spinner has not been allowed to play for his country because an integrity committee of the PCB is not satisfied by the clearance from Essex, his county team in England.
Kaneria and fellow Essex bowler Mervyn Westfield were arrested last year on charges of spot-fixing during a Pro40 match against Durham. Kaneria was later released without being charged but Westfield faces criminal proceedings.
Kaneria said he filed the case as a last resort.
“I have been dealing with the PCB over my clearance since last October and I have not gotten any justice from them,” said Kaneria. “I have now come to the legal system and I hope to see justice done here.” The first hearing of the petition will be held on July 4.
“The case is that the British police, the ICC and Essex county all have not charged Kaneria with any wrongdoing,” said Kaneria’s lawyer Mohammad Farogh Naseem. “Why then is his career being ruined? We are not saying select him, because that is up to performance and the board but he has to be cleared to be considered for selection at the very least.”
If issued a notice on Monday, the board’s legal advisor Taffazul Rizvi said they will appear. “We will help the court in any and every respect and whatever order is passed has to be implemented in letter and spirit,” he said. It is likely the board could again raise legal objections about the maintainability of the petition, as they did in the case against Afridi; that is, they will argue the case should be heard in Lahore High Court, the city where the PCB is headquartered.
Interestingly enough, there has been no bar on Kaneria playing domestic cricket where he turned out last season for his employers Habib Bank Limited in the Quaid-e-Azam trophy and for Karachi Zebras in limited-overs games. This apparent contradiction is likely to form one plank of Kaneria’s arguments.
“My only priority is to play for Pakistan again,” Kaneria said. “I don’t want to play outside, I just want to represent Pakistan once again and I believe I am capable of doing that.”
The Pakistan leg-spinner has not been allowed to play for his country because an integrity committee of the PCB is not satisfied by the clearance from Essex, his county team in England.
Kaneria and fellow Essex bowler Mervyn Westfield were arrested last year on charges of spot-fixing during a Pro40 match against Durham. Kaneria was later released without being charged but Westfield faces criminal proceedings.
Kaneria said he filed the case as a last resort.
“I have been dealing with the PCB over my clearance since last October and I have not gotten any justice from them,” said Kaneria. “I have now come to the legal system and I hope to see justice done here.” The first hearing of the petition will be held on July 4.
“The case is that the British police, the ICC and Essex county all have not charged Kaneria with any wrongdoing,” said Kaneria’s lawyer Mohammad Farogh Naseem. “Why then is his career being ruined? We are not saying select him, because that is up to performance and the board but he has to be cleared to be considered for selection at the very least.”
If issued a notice on Monday, the board’s legal advisor Taffazul Rizvi said they will appear. “We will help the court in any and every respect and whatever order is passed has to be implemented in letter and spirit,” he said. It is likely the board could again raise legal objections about the maintainability of the petition, as they did in the case against Afridi; that is, they will argue the case should be heard in Lahore High Court, the city where the PCB is headquartered.
Interestingly enough, there has been no bar on Kaneria playing domestic cricket where he turned out last season for his employers Habib Bank Limited in the Quaid-e-Azam trophy and for Karachi Zebras in limited-overs games. This apparent contradiction is likely to form one plank of Kaneria’s arguments.
“My only priority is to play for Pakistan again,” Kaneria said. “I don’t want to play outside, I just want to represent Pakistan once again and I believe I am capable of doing that.”
Published by Unknown
on 12:23.
Filed under
.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0
