Former Pakistan spinner Danish Kaneria has lashed out at the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for having double standards for players after Umar Akmal’s three-year ban sentence was reduced to 18 months despite the latter being proved guilty over failing to report corrupt approaches in the PSL.
Akmal’s ban will effectively run from February 2020 to August 2021 after his sentence was reduced by one-and-a-half years by an independent adjudicator, retired Supreme Court judge, Faqir Mohammad Khokhar recently. However, he might appeal again to get the ban “reduced further”.
Read Also: Umar Akmal dissatisfied despite reduction of ban period, wants it shortened further
The 30-year-old had been banned from all forms of cricket in April 2020 after the batsmen failed to report details of corrupt approaches made to him ahead of the Pakistan Super League this year.
Following the latest development, Kaneria slammed the PCB’s “religion-based policies”, accusing the board of discrimination on the basis of religion, as the likes of Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif, and Salman Butt, who were also found guilty of spot-fixing like him, have been allowed to return to cricket but he wasn’t despite appealing again and again for his life ban to be lifted.
Read Also: Danish Kaneria accuses PCB of discrimination, after it shortens Umar Akmal's ban
The former spinner, who was only the second Hindu to play for Pakistan, has often appealed to the PCB against his life ban, but the board isn’t supporting him and suggested him to approach England Cricket Board (ECB) since he was banned by the ECB for spot-fixing while he was playing for Essex in 2010.
Speaking to PTI from Karachi, Kaneria said: “You call it the zero-tolerance policy for corruption. Umar was proved guilty but still, his ban has been halved. They showed compassion in his case. Amir, Asif, Salman too were allowed to come back, why leave me out?”
He signed off, “Why don’t they show the same compassion in my case? They say I talk about my religion (he is a Hindu) but what do I say when the discrimination is crystal clear. I am just going by simple logic. They say I play the religion card. You tell me which Hindu player has played for Pakistan after me. No one. All these years they did not find one Hindu who was good enough. I find that hard to believe.”
(With PTI Inputs)
