Pakistan cricketer Khalid Latif banned for spot-fixing

Pakistan cricketer Khalid Latif has been slapped with a five-match ban and fined one million rupees by the anti-corruption tribunal after confirming that he is guilty of six breaches of the Pakistan Cricket Board’s anti-corruption code. A detailed order of the tribunal released today sealed the fact that the three-member bench found Latif guilty off all six charges, brought against him by the PCB in the spot-fixing case during the Pakistan Super League in Dubai in February.

Chaired by a former judge of the Lahore High Court, the tribunal had earlier banned Sharjeel Khan for five years with half of the sentence suspended on spot-fixing charges. PCB’s legal advisor Tafazzul Rizvi said the detailed order on Latif showcased that the tribunal found him guilty of meeting with a bookmaker, Yousuf on 8th and 9th of February and thereby getting involved in spot-fixing in a match. “It is irrelevant whether Khalid played a match or not. The full order finds him guilty of breaching the code of conduct.”

Multiple cases against the cricketer

The cricketer has also been found guilty of trying to convince his teammates to participate in spot-fixing apart from convincing Sharjeel to meet the bookmaker in Dubai. Latif and his lawyer have 14 days in hand to file an appeal against the ban and the fine.

“Sharjeel has already filed his appeal while the PCB has also appealed with the independent adjudicator,” Rizvi said. He also added that cases being put into focus related to batsman Nasir Jamshed and Shahzaib Hasan would be decided soon by the tribunal.

When quizzed about a statement made by a senior official of the UK national crime agency before the tribunal about the likely involvement of few other Pakistani cricketers in spot- fixing during the Bangladesh Premier League, Rizvi said since the tournament was a domestic event of the Bangladesh cricket board they would first have to take a decision on whether to open investigations into the allegations. “If they don’t open investigations in 180 days then the PCB can decide to hold its own inquiry,” he said.