Pakistan leg-spinner Danish Kaneria has got some respite in his ongoing battle to clear his name in spot-fixing investigations after an inquiry committee of the Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA) cleared his name in a probe. The KCCA inquiry committee cleared Kaneria of any further investigations in an ongoing probe into a match of the National Super Eights Twenty20 held this year. Karachi Zebras, the Pakistan Super League team for which Kaneria played, lost the match to lowly rated Peshawar Panthers in an upset result and were knocked out of the event with Kaneria bowling just four deliveries before going off the field with a fitness problem.
The KCCA, which is one of the biggest affiliated units of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), was forced to launch an inquiry after the manager of the Karachi team, Saeed Jabbar, reported that he suspected some players had spot-fixed the match and deliberately under-performed. But after Kaneria appeared before members of the inquiry committee, the KCCA said in a statement that no more investigations were needed. “The KCCA secretary, Professor Ejaz Farooqi, and a senior member, Qamar Ahmed, thoroughly interviewed Kaneria and are convinced his withdrawal from bowling was due to a side strain,” a KCCA statement said. “Kaneria was interviewed and also submitted a medical certificate to support his claim. The inquiry committee also spoke to the manager and convinced him that Kaneria is no longer required in the investigations,” the statement added.
Kaneria, 31, who has taken 261 wickets in 61 Tests, has not played for Pakistan since his last appearance in England in August 2010. The PCB has not cleared him for national selection since he was named in a spot-fixing investigation by the Essex police into a county match between Essex and Durham in 2009.
