The Pakistan Cricket Board has dropped a bombshell: Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Malik, and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan have been banned. While Yousuf and Younis have been banned indefinitely for causing in-fighting, Malik and Naved will only be eligible to play for Pakistan after a year.
Meanwhile, Shahid Afridi’s ball-biting antics have landed him a six-month probation and a three-million-rupee fine. Kamran Akmal and Umar Akmal have also been fined three million and two million rupees, respectively, for their tantrum-throwing and injury-feigning episodes during the Australia tour.
These punitive measures have been taken right before Pakistan is set to defend its World Twenty20 title in the West Indies in April and May.
Do you think the bans and fines are too harsh or too lenient? Will Pakistan be able to defend its title successfully without players like Rana Naved and Shoaib Malik on the field? And who will take on the troubled side’s captaincy? Salman Butt? Abdur Razzaq? Or dare we say, Shoaib Akhtar?
The following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.
Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik should also be banned indefinately. Everything else is fine.
i appreciate PCB’s bold decision to punish players who have been causing infighting and grouping. We should set an example for coming generations that there will never be any compromise on disciplin.
A step in the right direction finally. I have some concerns regaring Yousuf’s ban but the rest of them all deserved such punishments.
We fans woke up at 5:00 am to watch the matches only to see our team being defeated when they had the control of the entire game
These kind of decisions should have been taken much earlier. There should not be two opinions about the fact that who-ever plays for individual ego rather national pride should be banned indefinitly. However, what about Chairman PCB? As Chairman, he is much more responsible than anyone else for the team’s poor performances during his tenure?
it is a bold decision, one which should have been implemented much earlier. It is good to see the PCB taking decisive decisions. It is time the PCB authorities appoint a young captain who can stay to captain the team for a reasonable length of time, something that the South African cricket board did by appointing Graeme Smith. RazzaK not be the right choice as he may be a transition captain for 2-3 years.
Brave Step by PCB, This will be good lesson for younger players also to concentrate on Game instead of politics if they want to play for Pakistan.
This is first time that Hard step has been taken against players whom are National Hero’s.
Best of luck PCB give chance to new young players if we lost 20/20 World cup don’t matter now the main point is to build a team who players like a Team.
It is really a right decision. No one is bigger than game. We have to accept it for the betterment of our cricket and country fame. It looks harsh but now time has come where we have to take this sort of revolutionary decision. We should always keep in mind Pakistan’s Interest first. No player is greater or bigger than our country’s fame.
Its shocking news when i check the news column. of cricnews …i had not belived what is happen ..the condition is not good for pakistan . in cricket now an PCB take a such a harsh decissoion ..its unaccaptable..both the senior players should appeal against the ban..put them fine ..but not take the right from playing for the country..in my way PCB should take the decission back ..and take the players back…if its not happen…this is the END of PAK CRICKET……
It is high time that these decisions were taken. The tirades against each other, in the full glare of the media by yousuf and shoaib should have brought these decisions on,long ago.
How come that only six mnths were given to the Akmal brothers –their antics were the laugh of the Australian media .
And that ball eater ..he comppunded injury with isult by his ”everybody does it but I got caught “.
Hi Salman, I could not stop laughing… sorry !!!
yes, ban from international cricket is too harsh.
they should fine them, but no one should be ban.
if you see even in past you will feel there is someone who don’t want to see pakistan cricket at top,
whenever we have a title to defend or a big tournament something will happen, which is disturbing every Pakistan Cricket Fan, someone is always behind the scene and trying to destroy Pakistan Cricket. We should find and throw them out of Pakistan now otherwise i can see we are going to be a team like WEST INDIES.
There is only one person who is capable of captaining the team and that is Shahid Afridi – even though he has been fined I think he should be the Captain – there is no one else who has a good enough cricketing brain then him in the team. HE should be the captain for all formats.
I don’t really understand why is this life ban imposed. It is people like Afridi, Malik who have brought Pak cricket in bad light. Few months back, the same PCB was crying out loud that IPL has snubbed their players and now, they have done the same.
I think this is blaming the hen for laying the egg. Infighting was the reason Yunus stepped down. It was board’s job to solve it before the start of the tour. They didn’t and now they are effectively banning Yunus. Yusuf is a defensive player and has never been considered captain material specially for tour to Aus. How can you blame him for not being captain material? It was the fault of the selection/board. Akmal could not catch. Its a fact and may have cause atleast one lost match. I blame the selectors not him. Shoaib is out of form so was Misbah don’t we have a replacement for them? and whose job was it to groom more talent in such situation?
It is fine if the problem is solved through these measures but what about the mistakes PCB made? Who is making PCB realize their mistakes?
Hi,
I do feel that Pakistan is looking to move backwards and not trying to move forward by making senior players captain. Please don’t mistake me, I’m not against the old players staying in the team.
My point is to think about having a long term plan rather than short term plans.
You can take 3 teams for example. India, South Africa and Australia. Their captains i.e., Dhoni, Smith, Pointing became captains at a very young age and you yourself can see the results today.
It is very imp that the selectors give sufficient time and resources for a person to build team. Younus or Yousuf are almost ending their career. So there was no point in making any one of these captain. But the real problem with Pakistan is their inconsistent young players.
Talented players like Asif, Afridi has some or the other controversy surrounded around them. Asif with the drug case and Afridi with the ball bitting case.
I real feel pity on Pakistans position.
To mithun Kumar,you should feel more pitty for your own Indian team rather then pakistan, it’s the indian team who has succesfully failed in last four Icc tournaments, and not even one single game they have won in recent t20 super’8’s. Actually I feel really pitty for Dhoni’s 11 and you aswell.
Good luck may be next time.
Ijaz Butt should also be terminated. Since the tmie he has become head of PCB, nothing has gone right. i personally blame him for most of the shambles Pak cricket is in currently.
As for Yousef, no one can argue he is currently Pakistans best batsman now. He is even comparedto Miandad and Inzamam. To ban him from cricket is too harsh. He has another 2-3 years to give Pakistan – though not as captain.
Another person to be banned should have been Salman Butt. his involvemnt in Politics is no secret.
Sir I would not agree with it. If he is the best batsman this in itself tells the level where we stand in world cricket. We do not win matches on ‘names’. No doubt he has been a great cricketer but recently he has not done anything to build on his image and the image of the team.
Every player should fight for their place in the team with some solid and consistent performances. We have examples of teams where players like Andrew Symonds and Rahul Dravid has to sit out just because they are not performing up to the mark to be representing the country.
We have a lot of talent in our country and does not have to rely anymore on the current middle order of the team.
Abdus Sami if you are comparing your self with India or Australia then you are far down from there standard of domestic cricket. Tell me one batsmen pure quality batsmen who has taken his place in Pakistan team…after Younis khan?
I am asking for one proper technical batsmen
I agree with the punishments – may be the Akmal brothers too deserve a ban though. That’s my only objection.
Pak Cricket will be much poorer without YK and Moyo and there is no doubt about it. These two players make up for 80% of our batting in ODI and Test cricket. However, if they are guilty, they need to pay for the price and in the long term, we will gain.
Let’s not look for short term gains but long term ones.
NOBODY IS ABOVE THE GAME.
Now, Butt too should be banned from doing anything. Now that will be really cleaning the mess.
I am curious to know the acusation on Younis and Yousuf that they were responsible for the infighting in between the players hence they have been banned for life. I am definitely of the opinion that in Pakistyan, players misbehave or rather ignore their captain and tour managements decisions when they are either politically connected and or guided by the senior board members sitting in an authoritarian seat.
Someone from independent judiciary need to investigate this and impose hefty fines and suspension to such person sitting on PCB management. I can see that PCB management is with persons like Ijaz Butt, Wasim Bari , Mohammad Ilyas who themselves were very poor performer during in their own days. It seems that there is a serious flaw in current PCB management.
May be PCB has taken this step against all the criticism it had been facing after Pakistani defeat but I think that decision of this level is justified on the grounds of performance of players specially Umar Akmal denying to Play if Kamran is not in the team, Ball tempering by Afridi and Muhammad Yousaf stating a satisfaction over the performance after huge defeats.
However it can be challenged in any court if anybody does not agree to it
Brave step by PCB. This will set an example. Life ban on such players should not be taken away by future authorities. Not playing for country and hurting sentiments of people of pakistan should be punished like that. these players lack sportmanship. they are given every facilitiy. we as 3rd world nation bear all their expenses. people here live in agony and pain and they enjoy luxuries of 5 star hotels and still not perform. its a shame for them. see players of other nations. see S.Pollok, J. Kallis, Ricky Ponting, all of them are much more sound cricketers compared to our bannned players but they play under younger captains, never fight with each other, never promote player politics. our senior players should learn from them.
In my opinion Discipline is discipline no body is bigger than game itself. these players have taken away the charm of cricket in pakistan. nobody now sits in front of TV to see Pakistan playing because they always know the result. PAKISTAN LOST THE GAME DUE TO INTERNAL CONFLICTS.
NO MATTER WHAT OTHERS SAYS BUT THIS IS A STEP FORWARD A STEP TOWARDS BETTER FUTURE FOR PAKISTAN CRICKET. THANKS
Hate to admit that this decision by Butt administration makes me proud of him. It was about time players realised that their ego could never supercede National pride. I am a big fan of Younis but if he’s not a fan of Pakistan Cricket, bye bye to him then. Infact, all Pakistani players should learn how to stay grounded despite fame and money from none other than Sachin Tendulkar.
I don’t exactly know if the life ban on Younis and Yousuf was justified. However one year bans and fines on the other players seem justified enough to me.
Anyway, these players are history (for now), now I am looking forward to the new team that comes up for the upcoming T20. I hope we find some very good replacements for these players. Good luck Pakistani team!
It is high time that we as a nation start taking tough decisions. This one is definately the step in right direction. Look where we have reached Morally and Culturally. We are not ashamed of our doings and tarnishing the image of a wonderful country. A country which has give us all so much most of all an identity and home to live and shelter in case of need.
In my opinion though it may look very harsh to some people and may be partisan as well but we must learn to take such decisions and follow them with actions both in words and spirit to set an expample of good governance in all sector of life including sports.
Hats off to the decision makers, now the responsibility lies on the people on the helm to enforce the decision so that the younger and forthcoming players remember and be deciplined. WE MUST PUT PAKISTAN’S INTEREST FIRST THAN INDIVIDUAL’S.