Sindh High Court Rejects Danish Kaneria’s Appeal to Play Cricket Again

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has dismissed the appeal of the former leg-spinner, Danish Kaneria, who approached the court to grant him permission to play in domestic and local tournaments again.

In December 2020, Danish Kaneria, through his lawyer, Asad Iftikhar, had filed a petition in the SHC, contending that he should be allowed to take part in the rehabilitation program of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to pave his way for participating in the domestic and local matches again.

The PCB’s rehabilitation program is a comprehensive rehab program that works on the players found guilty of spot-fixing, match-fixing, or corruption to enable them to mend their ways and resume their cricketing careers after serving their bans.

The SHC had reserved its decision on Kaneria’s petition weeks ago which was revealed during the final hearing of the case held earlier today. During the final arguments in the previous hearing, Kaneria’s lawyer argued that the player had admitted to spot-fixing and is now filled with regret and remorse. Therefore, he should be enrolled in the PCB’s rehabilitation program for allowing him to play cricket again.

PCB’s lawyer countered by saying that the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) had imposed a lifetime ban on Danish Kaneria in 2012 after he was found guilty of spot-fixing while playing for Essex County Cricket Club, adding that UK’s courts have also denied the bowler’s appeals to overturn the ban.

The SHC was convinced with the arguments of PCB’s lawyer which is why Danish Kaneria’s appeal has been dismissed.

Danish Kaneria featured for Pakistan in 61 Tests and 18 ODIs between 2000 and 2010, taking 261 and 15 wickets in two formats respectively.

In 2009, the leg-spinner had convinced his Essex team-mate, Mervyn Westfield, into accepting huge sums of cash in return for conceding a fixed number of runs in an over during a one-day match against Durham County Cricket Club.