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Rashid Latif banned for six months by PCB

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has banned Rashid Latif for six months after he conceded a four-day domestic match saying the pitch

Cricinfo staff
01-Dec-2004


Rashid Latif: banned © AFP
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has banned Rashid Latif for six months after he conceded a four-day domestic match, saying that the pitch was unfit, while captain of the Karachi Blues against Faisalabad last week.
A spokesman for the PCB, Abbas Zaidi, told Reuters that the Board had taken "serious notice of the breach of playing conditions" as they imposed the ban and fined him $250 (about £125) on Wednesday.
Latif declared his team's innings closed at 33 for 4 in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy game, and conceded the match, explaining that he felt the pitch was too dangerous for play to continue. "I didn't want any serious injury to take place," Latif told The News, a Pakistan daily paper. "The pitch was not fit for a first-class match, and the batsmen were getting bat on ball with difficulty due to the unusual movement and variable bounce." But he declined to comment on the ban, telling Reuters: "I have nothing to say at the moment." Khalid Niazi, the match referee, awarded the match to Faisalabad since Karachi had refused to carry on.
Latif, the former Test captain, is already missing the Test series in Australia which starts later this month (Kamral Akmal was selected as the team's sole wicketkeeper) and he is now also out of next year's tours of India and West Indies. The punishment imposed on the 36-year-old Latif takes into account his past record: he accused his team-mates of being involved in match-fixing in 1995, and last year he received a five-match ban from one-day internationals after he wrongly claimed a catch in a match against Bangladesh. Latif has also been vocal in his criticism of the PCB's selection policies.
The Karachi team will be allowed to continue in the competition, as it was decided that Latif had acted independently.