LONDON: Former Pakistan international Danish Kaneria has lost his final legal challenge in an English court against a life ban imposed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for spot-fixing while playing for county side Essex, it was announced on Tuesday.
Judge Stanley Burton, sitting in England’s Court of Appeal, said an application by Kaneria to appeal against a life ban imposed by the ECB in June 2012, was “totally without merit”.
Burton also decided Kaneria, who has made several attempts to get his ban overturned, could not request the decision be reconsidered at an oral hearing.
His rulings mean Kaneria has exhausted all the legal options available to him in England to appeal a life ban which, under reciprocal arrangements between all members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), means the 33-year-old leg-spinner is barred from playing cricket worldwide.
ECB Chairman Giles Clarke, responding to the Court of Appeal’s announcement, said in a statement, “The ECB welcomes the decision to dismiss the application by Mr Kaneria to appeal the life ban imposed for his corrupt activity.
“It is high time that Mr Kaneria came clean about his involvement in these corrupt activities and stopped misleading the Pakistan cricket fans and wider public with his empty protestations of innocence.”
In May, Britain’s High Court rejected Kaneria’s bid to overturn the ban imposed by ECB for encouraging a teammate to bowl badly on purpose as part of a spot-fixing scam.
The ban was then subsequently applied globally by the ICC and Kaneria lost an appeal with the ECB disciplinary panel in July last year.
Court verdict yet to reach us: Kaneria
Kaneria said that he and his lawyers were made aware of the update on the rejection of his appeal through media reports and they are yet to receive the official detailed verdict from the court itself.
He added that it was the ECB that broke the news to the public and he will comment on the situation after consulting his lawyer.
“I will decide my next step after we get the detailed verdict,” said Kaneria.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 13th, 2014.
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