The Pakistan Cricket Board has returned the money it had deducted from the funds of four players after they were fined heavily earlier this year for indiscipline during the disastrous tour of Australia.
Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Zaka Ashraf might step down or could be told by President Asif Zardari to resign in the next few days following the dismal show of the team in the ongoing Champions Trophy.
However the final decision to shift the tournament will be Asian Cricket Council's prerogative.
Disgraced Pakistan pacer Mohammad Asif took a step further towards his rehabilitation when he subamitted a written apology to the Cricket Board (PCB) and also agreed to cooperate with authorities on the spot-fixing issue.
The Pakistan Cricket Board will review the life ban for match fixing imposed on the country's former captain Saleem Malik on the recommendation of a judicial inquiry commission, PCB chairman Najam Sethi said on Tuesday.
Fired four years ago following allegations of match-fixing, Ejaz Ahmed junior has been controversially appointed head coach of the Pakistan squad for the Asian Emerging Nations Cup, to be held in Karachi and Colombo in December.
The Pakistan Cricket Board reiterated that it would withdraw the life ban on former captain Salim Malik if the court rules in his favour. The remarks came from the PCB's legal counsel at a hearing in a Lahore local court, where Malik has appealed against the life ban and fine recommended on him by the Justice Malik Qayyum match-fixing inquiry commission seven years ago.
The Shaukat Khanum Hospital blamed Shoaib's brother, who said he released the report to the media to prove his brother is "completely committed" to the Pakistan team.
Former captain and fast bowling great Wasim Akram has been included in an inquiry committee constituted by the Pakistan Cricket Board to probe the team's disastrous performance in Australia.
Pakistan's World Twenty20 loss to India could spell the end of Shahid Afridi's rein as captain with the country's Cricket Board planning to sack him irrespective of the team's performance in the remainder of the tournament. "There is clear discontent in the Board about Afridi and his performances and captaincy and even if he decides against retiring after the World T20, the board will not retain him as captain any longer and even his days as a player are ending now," a Pakistan Cricket Board source said. "The Board is also privately not happy with the media statements of Afridi and believe it is time to move on," he said. Sources told PTI that PCB Chairman Shaharyar Khan has indicated even the current selection committee could be disbanded after the World T20. "No matter whether Pakistan reaches the semi-finals or even wins the title the selection committee headed by Haroon Rasheed is on its way out," one source confided. He said the inquiry committee formed by the board to probe into the performance of the team in the Asia Cup had already held three meetings and expressed discontent with the performance of the selectors and management.
Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi has been accused of being non-serious throughout the Asia Cup and World Twenty20 in a report filed by under-fire coach Waqar Younis, who is furious about it being leaked to the media.
Flamboyant all-rounder Shahid Afridi will appear before a six-member inquiry committee on Friday to explain his ball-biting antic in Perth, while captain Mohammad Yousuf and coach Intikhab Alam would depose with their versions of the team's comprehensive rout in Australia.
Social media was flooded with jokes ridiculing the PCB after a biscuit-shaped trophy was unveiled for the T20I series against Australia earlier this month, which Pakistan won 3-0.
The former Pakistan skipper questioned the PCB's decision to investigate claims that players may have faked injuries during the India-Pakistan Test series.
Pakistan's seasoned wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal may be disciplined by the cricket board after the inquiry committee probing into the national team's poor performance in Australia submits its report on Tuesday.
Former South African skipper Shaun Pollock on Wednesday said if poor performance was criteria for handing out bans to Pakistani cricketers then the punishment is a "bit harsh".
Akmal was provisionally suspended on the eve of the Pakistan Super League. He was charged with two breaches of Article 2.4.4 of the PCB Anti-Corruption Code in two unrelated incidents on March 17.
Umar Akmal was suspended hours before his PSL team Quetta Gladiators was to take on Islamabad in the opening match of the 2020 edition on Thursday.
PCB Cricket Committee to take decisions on splitting captaincy, inviting applications for new coach
The Pakistan Cricket Board might pardon Twenty20 captain Shahid Afridi and six other players banned and fined for indiscipline if they apologise for their actions, chief selector Mohsin Khan said on Wednesday.
The late ICC chief Jagmohan Dalmiya supported PCB a lot in the Shoaib Akhtar bowling action case. He took a stand for PCB despite the ICC members insisting that Akhtar's bowling action was illegal.
Former Pakistan skipper Javed Miandad has refused to attend meetings of the fact-finding committee of the Cricket Board to probe into the national team's poor performance in the Asia Cup and World T20. "Every time we do badly in a big tournament, the board carries out this charade of appointing a probe committee," Miandad told PTI. "Why should I go running to attend their meetings on a call from a secretary. I have already said what I had to say in the media. First and foremost the top people in the board should step down," he added. Miandad, who has been extremely critical of the state of affairs in Pakistan cricket and the team's dismal show, said nothing comes out of such inquiries.
Khalid and his Pakistan and Islamabad United teammate Sharjeel Khan have both now appeared before the tribunal in Lahore and decided to contest the spot-fixing charges against them in the corruption scandal that rocked the Pakistan Super League.
A third man has been arrested in relation to an ongoing investigation into possible corruption in Pakistani cricket, Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) said.
Former Pakistan captain and fast bowling great, Wasim Akram slammed the formation of an inquiry committee by the cricket board to probe into the team's poor show in the Asia Cup in Bangladesh. "I don't understand the purpose of announcing a probe committee when the national team is due to leave for India for the World T20," Akram told a news conference on Saturday. Akram, who was Director of the Islamabad United franchise which recently won the Pakistan Super League in Dubai, said that it was lamentable that instead of supporting the team the players were being put under pressure. "I don't agree with this thinking. This decision of the Pakistan Cricket Board to evaluate the team's performance in the Asia Cup at this time," he added. "It does not make sense as the World T20 is just a few days away."
The 33-year-old, who played five Tests and 61 One Day Internationals but has not played for more than a year
Chief selector Moin Khan, recalled from the World Cup for visiting a casino, returned to Pakistan to a hostile reception as cricket fans staged angry demonstrations on Thursday.
Tainted former Pakistan captain Saleem Malik on Wednesday pleaded with the Pakistan Cricket Board to drop his life ban for match-fixing and help fulfil his goal to take up coaching assignments. The 57-year-old Malik was found guilty of match-fixing following a judicial inquiry in 2000 in a scandal that rocked the cricket world.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has already announced that its revamped cricket committee will hold a robust inquiry into the team's performances
All that's transpired on and off the cricket pitch on Saturday.
Pakistan opening batsman Ahmed Shehzad has escaped strong disciplinary action for his controversial religious comments to Tillakaratne Dilshan of Sri Lanka as the Board let him off with just a stern reprimand for violating a clause of his central contract.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) decided to take disciplinary action against the players, including indefinite ban on former captains Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan, after confirming reports off internal strife in the team and after getting clearance from the Presidency, sources said on Wednesday.
Former Pakistan captain Mohammad Yousuf has asked the Cricket Board (PCB) to raise the Test match fees or face the possibility of a further slump in the rankings of the game's five-day version.
Fast bowler Mohammad Asif was detained at Dubai airport this year for possessing opium, the head of the Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) three-man inquiry committee said on Tuesday. The PCB's former chief operating officer added the player was eventually deported without charge because the quantity of opium, the raw ingredient of heroin, was small.
Pakistan's chief selector Moin Khan returned home from Australia on Thursday and escaped an embarrassing situation at the airport, where a small group of protesters gathered to vent their anger with eggs and banners.
Pakistan have asked the ICC to hold an inquiry into umpire Darrell Hair's conduct before Inzamam-ul-Haq's disciplinary hearing
Pakistan cricket team masseur was sent back from the ICC Champions Trophy after being accused of sexually harassing a female worker at the London hotel, where the players stayed during the event, a source has claimed.
The Sri Lankan cricket board has turned down an invitation from the Pakistan Cricket Board to send its team to Lahore to play two T20 International matches at the start of its home series in October.
Former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Ijaz Butt has set off another controversy by claiming that the national team's head coach Waqar Younis had resigned before the 2015 World Cup after being insulted by Ahmed Shehzad.
The Pakistan Cricket Board will announce the squads for next month's Asia Cup and the tour of England on May 22 and opener Salman Butt is likely to get the Test captaincy.
