Cricketer Sharjeel Khan’s lawyer said that they would challenge the dismissal of his appeal in a higher court against a ban imposed by a tribunal on Thursday.
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 spot-fixing scandal was exposed during the second edition of the Pakistan Super League which was taking place in Dubai in February this year.
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,” said Sharjeel´s lawyer Shaigan Ijaz.
“The PCB has not been able to prove the spot-fixing and that has halted a promising career so we will continue to challenge the decision until we get justice,” he added.
Ijaz pointed out that the PCB tribunal had limited them to only two options when they announced the ban. He said, “The tribunal had given us either of the two options, first to appeal to an adjudicator or go to the Court of Arbitration. We have used one option, so we cannot go to the CAS now.”
When the ban was announced, 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.
The Pakistani opener 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 which involves determining the outcome of a specific part of a match rather than the overall result is harder to detect than match-fixing. Sharjeel’s fellow counterpart Khalid Latif was banned for five years and fined one million rupees (10,000 dollars) for arranging the deal with a bookie.
