Cricketer jailed for beating wife with bat

A British court on Friday sentenced Pakistani cricketer Mustafa Bashir to 18 months’ imprisonment for assaulting his wife with a cricket bat following a public outcry over an earlier sentence that was seen as too lenient

The widely followed case was reviewed in the Manchester Crown Court after it had in March suspended Bashir’s sentence when the judge was told that Bashir would lose out on a professional cricket contract if he were jailed.

The ruling was reviewed after the Leicestershire County Club denied it had made any offer to Bashir, 34, who assaulted his wife Fakhara Karim. The court concluded that Bashir had misled the court, and sentenced him to 18 months in jail.

The earlier ruling suspending the sentence raised a storm of protest from campaign groups and others since Bashir, who earlier played for Oldham and Bolton, had admitted to attacking Karim and forcing her to drink bleach.

Judge Richard Mansell said he was "fundamentally misled" and told Bashir: “You were clearly making a claim to court you had professional cricket contract."

Bashir claimed in court that he "wasn't listening", was "extremely emotional" and there were a "series of misunderstandings".

Leicestershire County Cricket Club chief executive Wasim Khan said: "Leicestershire CCC are appalled that Bashir could have invented a job offer from the club in order, it would seem, to evade a prison sentence."