Afridi should be kicked out of national team: senators

“If he (Afridi) bites the ball like an apple there’s lots of problems behind it.”
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s parliament says Shahid Afridi should be banned from the national team for three to four international series after being found guilty of ball tampering.

Afridi was banned for two Twenty20 games for biting the ball during the final one-day international against Australia last month.

At a meeting of a parlimentary sports committee on Monday, Senator Tariq Azeem told Pakistan Cricket Board officials that Afridi had besmirched the country’s reputation and should be further punished.

“If he (Afridi) bites the ball like an apple there’s lots of problems behind it,” Senator Haroon Akhtar told PCB chairman Ijaz Butt during a meeting of Upper House committee on Sports.

“If you don’t take action this will happen again. The team lacks discipline and you got to rectify the problem.”

Afridi missed one Twenty20 international against Australia, and wil be out for the first encounter against England on Feb. 20 at Dubai.

However Butt told the committee that it cannot punish Afridi, in accordance with International Cricket Council standards.

“The ICC has told us clearly that you can’t punish a player twice for one offense,” Butt said.

“Their lawyer has also suggested us that if we handed more punishment to Afridi and he challenges it in court, it will run the PCB into trouble.”

However, Senator Tariq Azeem contended that selecting a player was the discretion of the PCB.

“The ICC can’t question you if you don’t pick him up in the national team,” Azeem said.

“You (Butt) should not compromise the integrity of the nation. No player is indispensable. We should tell the world that we are not cheaters and we know how to deal with indisciplined players.”

Meanwhile, Butt told the committee that the PCB is in for a windfall if it can organize two test series against India.

“If we play two series against India before 2012 we could earn $90 million,” Butt said.

However, Azeem strongly objected to any plans to play India, after Pakistan players were snubbed at the recent Indian Premier League auction.

“They humiliated us by not bidding for our players in the auction and we should not play against India,” Azeem said.