PCB returns fine amount to players

The Pakistan Cricket Board has returned the money it had deducted from the funds of four players after they were fined heavily earlier this year for indiscipline during the disastrous tour of Australia.

According to details, PCB's finance department in a show of great urgency returned the fine amount of Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal, Umar Akmal and Shoaib Malik, who were penalised in March by the board's inquiry committee set up to probe the national team's poor show in  Australia.

Afridi and Kamran were fined three million rupees, while Umar and Malik were penalised two million each.

The PCB inquiry committee even imposed a one-year ban on Malik for indiscipline during the tour but the board's appeal's commissioner later cleared him of any wrongdoing, thereby paving the way for the former captain's return to the national team.

"Since Afridi's fine was removed completely and the fines of other players were halved, they approached the board for return of their funds," one source said.

The source said that PCB chairman Ejaz Butt had flown to England last week with cheques for the players.

"Butt handed over the cheques of the deducted amounts to the players when he met them in London before the first Test," the source said.

"The idea was that the players should have peace of mind before the start of the Test series. Secondly, the players were right in their apprehensions as the finance department acted too hastily while deducting the total fines from the players earnings," the source added.

The PCB inquiry committee had also banned Rana Naved for a yaer and fined him two million rupees but his appeal is still pending with the appeal's commissioner.