Lahore High Court rejects petition against spot-fixing accused cricketers
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755’s Lahore High Court dismissed a petition on Monday, requesting lifetime bans on the three cricketers convicted by the International Cricket Council for involvement in spot-fixing. The petition also demands the immediate confiscation of the properties
of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mohammad-Asif-c1993.
In a preliminary hearing, the court rejected the petition, ruling that the players’ involvement in spot-fixing had not directly affected the petitioner, Advocate Rana Ilamuddin Ghazi. A statement issued by the court said, “Petitioner Advocate Rana Ilamuddin
Ghazi is not liable to move the petition since he has not been affected by the issue directly.”
In his petition, Ghazi said that the players had defamed the country and had hurt the image of cricket by their involvement in corruption. He said, “The punishment given by the ICC to the cricketers is much lesser than that what they deserve.”
In February, the International Cricket Council banned the three men from all forms of cricket for a minimum of five years. The sentences were announced after a hearing conducted by the ICC’s anti-corruption tribunal.
Ghazi stressed that Pakistani cricketers were role models for the people because of the popularity of the game. He said that there was no room for corruption in the lives of the players.
Ghazi had also suggested an investigation into the role of senior officials of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). He said corruption in the game could not have been possible without the knowledge of the people running the country’s cricket governing body.
Ghazi had particularly sought the interrogation of PCB chairman Ejaz Butt, team manager Intikhab Alam and head coach Waqar Younis.
Last year was particularly difficult for Pakistan, especially when the spot-fixing scandal saw the country’s three key cricketers, among them the team’s two best bowlers, getting suspended after the team’s tour of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c749.
The fiasco forced the PCB to take radical steps in their code of conduct for the players, introducing strict punishments for anyone involved in any sort of corrupt practices. ICC’s anti-corruption unit (ACU) also came under criticism for failing to detect
the existence of spot-fixing as it had been exposed by a British tabloid ‘News of the Word’.
Salman Butt, the left-handed batsman, has been banned for 10 years, Asif for seven and Aamer for five years. The terms of the ban make it compulsory for the players not to indulge in activities related to cricket which have been sanctioned by the ICC or
its affiliate cricket boards. Nevertheless, the players can take up private jobs even if they are related to the game of cricket.
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