Yasir Shah extends Pakistan cricket’s love for scandals

Pakistan’s star leg spinner Yasir Shah has once again found himself in hot waters a after being named in an FIR for his alleged involvement in a rape of a 14-year-old girl.

FIR details:

As per the copy of the First Information Report (FIR) which is widely available on the social media, the complainant is a resident of the F-10 area in Islamabad who claims to know Shah and his friend for quite some time.

The FIR stated that the petitioner, who is the aunt of the girl, registered the complaint at the Shalimar Police Station in Islamabad on December 19, 2021.

The 35-year-old Test cricketer was booked under different sections of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) including 292-B, 292-C, and 376.

The Swabi-born cricketer has been accused of life threatening the young girl and aiding his friend Farhan in raping the victim on more than one occasion.

The plaintiff also stated that she has the audio record of Shah threatening her

14-year-old niece of using the influence of his fame.

PCB’s assertion

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) did not respond instantly about the development but later released a statement saying that they are monitoring the situation.

“We have noted that some allegations have been leveled against one of our Centrally Contracted players. The PCB is presently gathering information at its end and will only offer a comment when in possession of complete facts,” read the statement.

Ramiz’s reaction:

The PCB’s chairman Ramiz Raja said that the recently allegations on Shah does not pain a good picture for cricket in Pakistan.

He passed those remarks while talking to the media in Karachi.

“It is a no-brainer,” he said. “Yasir is a circuit player and while we train and educate these players they are in ambassadorial positions and should know with whom and where to socialize. I don’t know what the truth is in this case but it is a fact that such headlines are not good for Pakistan cricket and especially at a time when there is a feel-good factor going through Pakistan Cricket now,” Ramiz said.

Troubling times for Yasir

Yasir Shah has had his share of up and downs over the years after making his debut for Pakistan.

The right-arm leggie was provisionally suspended after failing a dope test by the International Cricket Council (ICC) back in December 2015.

Shah was charged with an anti-doping rule violation on a sample he provided in an in-competition test, an ICC statement announced.

The test was conducted on November 13, 2015, found to contain the presence of chlortalidone, a Prohibited Substance which appears in Section 5 of the World Anti-Doping Agency list (in the category of Specified Substances).”

Shah was handed a three-month suspension after accepting the fact that he took his wife’s medicine to get some pain relief.

Career timeline:

Yasir Shah is famous for his heroics in the red-ball cricket but was not part of the Test squad for the tour of Bangladesh.

The right-arm leggie has found the going tough since 2019 and was eventually dropped from the squad for the home series against South Africa last year where he was replaced by the duo of Noman Ali and  Sajid Khan.

Since January 2019, Shah is averaging nearly 49 runs per wicket in Test cricket whereas before that he was averaging just 28 runs per scalp in the five-day format.

During same duration, the 35-year-old has been conceding way too many runs for the liking of the captain, making it difficult for bowlers to build pressure at the other end.

Despite all of that, Shah remains the fastest to reach 200 wickets in Test cricket in just 33 matches.

In total, he has played 46 Tests for the Green Caps where he has managed to claim 235 wickets at an average of 31.08, which included 16 five-wicket and three 10-wicket hauls.

Shah has never been prolific in white-ball cricket where he has only managed to represent the Men-in-Green in 25 ODIs, claiming just 24 wickets at an average of 47.91 along with the economy-rate of 5.33.

Pakistan players and controversies:

Pakistan cricketers are not immune to controversies as over the years they’ve found ways to stay in the spotlight, more often than not, for all the wrong reasons.

Match-fixing allegations and Malik Qayyum report in the 90s

The Justice Qayyum Inquiry Commission started its investigation on September 9, 1998 and concluded Salim Malik, Ata-ur-Rehman, Mushtaq Ahmed, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Saeed Anwar and Inzamam-ul-Haq were guilty on one count or the other related to match-fixing.

A few of them were found guilty for accepting bribes to give away the matches, meanwhile, others were fined due to lack of evidence.

According to a report by BBC published on the of May 25, 2000, the Qayyum Commission had proposed life ban for veteran all-rounder Malik and fined him £12,000 along with possible criminal charges.

He became the first-ever cricketer to face a sentence of lifetime ban. However, his punishment was overturned by a local Pakistani court in 2008.

Malik, who was one of the finest batting all-rounders of his time, represented the national team in more than 100 Tests between 1981 to 1999.

He issued a public apology on April 27, 2020, in which he admitted that he played a part in the match-fixing scandal during the 1990s.

Other than that, a life ban was also recommended for fast-bowler Ata-ur-Rehman, but he was fined £1,200.

Right-arm leg-spinner Mushtaq was fined £3,700 but he avoided any ban because the commission could not find sufficient grounds to cast doubt on his conduct. However, further investigation was proposed against the spinner.

Wasim, who was undoubtedly the most high-profile name in the investigation, was given the benefit of the doubt with regards to the Sharjah tournament in 1997 and he was fined £3,700. Meanwhile, further investigation about his assets was also recommended.

The commission did not find any evidence that fast-bowler Waqar Younis had received a car as bribe. He was censured and faced a penalty of £1,200.

Similarly, Saeed Anwar, Inzamam-ul-Haq, and Akram Raza were not found guilty due to lack of evidence. However, they were fined £1,200 with a stern warning and a further probe into their assets was suggested.

Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif failing dope test

A three-man tribunal formed by the PCB found star pacers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif guilty of using the banned anabolic steroid nandrolone in 2006.

Following the development, the duo received a ban of one, two years respectively from cricket.

Both Akhtar and Asif tested positive after the PCB conducted their dope tests internally at the end of September that year.

The pacers were also then pulled out of the Pakistan’s squad for the Champions Trophy on October 16, 2006.

A two-year ban is the minimum penalty for a first offence under ICC’s doping rules. However, the PCB insisted that they will take their own decision since the tests were conducted internally.

Oval Test ball-tempering accusations

Pakistan’s fourth and final contest of the England tour in 2006 came to a sour conclusion because of the ball-tempering accusations.

The Three Lions were leading the four-match series 2-0 after the first match ended in a draw.

In the final Test, the visitors were in a dominating position and had the game in their control. However, on the morning of August 20, 2006, the cricket world was shocked after umpires Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove ruled that the Green Caps were guilty of ball-tempering and awarded the home team five runs.

Following the controversy, Pakistan team under the captaincy of Inzamam-ul-Haq refused to take the field after the tea break and ended up forfeiting the Test match.

Spot-fixing scandal (Amir, Asif and Butt)

In 2010, the world of cricket came to a standstill after Pakistan’s trio of then captain Salman Butt and star pace duo of Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif’s hotel rooms were searched by the Scotland Yard during the Lord’s Test.

The development came on August 28 after an sting operation from News of the World where it was revealed that the trio’s agent Mazhar Majeed had predicted no balls on the third day of the Test to be bowled by Asif and Amir.

Later, a tribunal of the ICC found all three guilty of the said charges and handed them a ban of ten, five and seven years, respectively.

A local court in London handed jail terms to the three players in November 2011.

Butt was sentenced to two years and six months, Asif for one year, and Amir was sent to jail for six months.

However, the left-arm pacer was released after spending three months in the Portland Young Offenders Institution in early 2012.

Danish Kaneria (Spot-fixing scandal in 2010)

Pakistan’s right-arm leg-spinner Danish Kaneria was handed a lifetime ban by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in June 2012 for his involvement in a spot-fixing scandal.

The 41-year-old was found guilty of pressuring his Essex team-mate Mervyn Westfield to accept cash and in return he had to concede a particular number of runs in an over during a one-day match against Durham in 2009.

Kaneria also apologized for his actions and expressed remorse for the incident in 2018.

PSL Spot-fixing scandal

Just after the first match during the second edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL), the then chairman Najam Sethi announced during a TV show that the PCB has suspended few players to investigate spot-fixing charges.

Later, it was confirmed that the players were Islamabad United’s Sharjeel Khan and Khalid Latif.

The duo were sent back home following the development and PCB set up an anti-corruption investigation.

After the investigation, the PCB’s anti-corruption unit in association with the ICC levelled charges against six cricketers including Sharjeel, Khalid, Nasir Jamshed, Mohammad Irfan, Shahzaib Hasan and Mohammad Nawaz.

Sharjeel was fined two million PKR and five-year ban for deliberately playing two dot balls in the opening fixture of the PSL 2017 whereas Latif, who was not even the part of the playing XI in that match, also received a ban for five years from all formats of the game.

Former opening Nasir Jamshed received a stern punishment for being the mastermind of the spot-fixing scandal and he received a 10-year ban from professional cricketing activities.

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