ECB and PCB played with my career: Pakistani leg-spinner Danish Kaneria
In an exclusive interview with Uttarpradesh.org, Pakistani leg-spinner Danish Kaneria spoke about the injustice meted out to him at the hands of PCB and ECB. Kaneria, who had been handed a life-ban by England and Wales Cricket Board, said that he'd been discriminated against. He said that 3 players, jailed and convicted in UK were being allowed to play while PCB had sidelined him.
Danish Kaneria is a right-arm leg spinner who played in Tests and One Day Internationals for Pakistan and represented Essex in English county cricket. After Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Imran Khan he has the most number of Test wickets for Pakistan. Kaneria played 61 tests (261 wickets at an average of 34.79) and 18 ODIs (15 wickets at an average of 45).
Hailing from a Gujarati family, Danish Kaneria is the second Hindu cricketer to have played for Pakistan after Anil Dalpat.
Kaneria was banned for life from any cricket under the jurisdiction of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). He was found guilty of corruption in 2009 Essex county spot-fixing case involving Mervyn Westfield. The ECB said that Kaneria had introduced businessman Anu Bhatt to Westfield and had encouraged Westfield to underperform. PCB is yet to decide Kaneria's cricketing fate in Pakistan.
Kaneria appealed before an Appeals tribunal of the ECB and then a commercial court in London in 2014 against the ban. Both times, his appeal was rejected. Kaneria had said that the ECB appeal panel had exceeded their jurisdiction while ordering him to pay the ECB legal costs of £200,000. However, the court had ruled that the appeal panel had not exceeded its powers.
Danish Kaneria lashed out at ECB and PCB for their discriminatory attitude towards him. The ECB had allowed Mervyn Westfield to participate in lower-level cricket while one year of his spot-fixing ban remained. PCB on the other hand had barred Kaneria too even though the ECB ban did not apply outside of England. Moreover, he argued there was no concrete incriminating evidence against him.
