Pakistan’s Misbah wants life bans for fixers

KARACHI: Pakistan's Test captain Misbah-ulHaq on Sunday called for life bans on anyone found guilty of fixing, adding that an investigation into five players threatened years of work to clean up the country's image.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has provisionally suspended Sharjeel Khan, Khalid Latif, Mohammad Irfan, Shahzaib Hasan and Nasir Jamshed on charges linked to spot-fixing and failure to report approaches by bookmakers during the recently-held Pakistan Super League (PSL).

The case, which is being investigated by a judicial commission, has revived memories of a 2010 scandal that involved the national team and deprived it of three top players including paceman Mohammad Amir, who has since made a comeback.

Misbah was appointed captain in the aftermath of that tainted series in England, and set about rebuilding the team with an ethos that emphasized discipline and integrity.

His team steadily climbed world rankings and rose briefly to number one last year.

Speaking about the latest suspensions to reporters on Sunday, he said: "Obviously it's disappointing and there should be a law that once you have done something wrong you should not return to this field again."

Pakistan's rehabilitation on the international circuit had appeared to be complete last year when Misbah led the team on its first tour of England since the 2010 scandal, in a series praised for its sportsmanship.

The 42-year-old was subsequently awarded the International Cricket Council's Spirit of Cricket award — testament to the high regard in which world cricket holds him.

"We did our best to clean the game up and the seven years of hard work and our image is now spoilt to a great extent. You cannot afford this again and again," he said.

Earlier this month Misbah shelved plans to retire and will now lead his team in next month's three-match Test series in the West Indies starting on April 22.

Pakistan are desperate for a turnaround after suffering whitewashes in their last two series.