Kaneria Loses Latest Spot-Fixing Appeal

Former Pakistan international leg-spinner Danish Kaneria has had his appeal against his lifetime ban from playing cricket in the United Kingdom upheld by an Appeal Panel of the Cricket Discipline Commission.

Mervyn Westfield, a former team-mate at Essex, remains banned from all forms of cricket for five years from 17th February 2012 but will be allowed to play club cricket after 1st April 2014, provided he co-operates fully with the Professional Cricketers' Association's anti-corruption education programme.

The pair were banned - and Westfield was subsequently sentenced to four months in prison - after being found guilty of breaching the England and Wales Cricket Board's (ECB) Anti-Corruption Code and Kaneria's appeal against the ban in April was also rejected.

Kaneria was implicated by Westfield during a criminal trial investigating whether he had, in 2009, deliberately bowled poorly in a match for Essex against Durham.

Kaneria was charged with encouraging, or attempting to induce or encourage Westfield to underperform and conducting himself in a manner which brings the game into disrepute by so doing.

“ECB welcomes today’s decision to uphold the life ban imposed on Mr Kaneria for his corrupt activity.  The Appeal Panel’s findings in this case clearly confirm the Disciplinary Panel’s finding that Mr Kaneria acted as a recruiter of potential ‘spot-fixers’ and used his seniority and international experience to target and corrupt a young and vulnerable player.
 
"ECB will continue to advocate the need for the strongest possible deterrent sanctions for anyone found guilty of such conduct," ECB Chairman Giles Clarke said. "Such sanctions are vital for the protection of the integrity of our great game.
 
"We trust that today’s decision will serve as a stark reminder to all professional cricketers and those involved in professional cricket of the life-changing consequences of corruption and the importance of immediately reporting any suspicious activity to the appropriate authorities.
 
"We note, with regret, that Mr Kaneria has neither made any admission of guilt nor expressed any remorse for his corrupt actions despite the weight of evidence against him and the fact that, after two lengthy hearings, his guilt has now been resoundingly established on two separate occasions by two separate independent panels.
 
"It is high time that Mr Kaneria came clean about his involvement in these corrupt activities and stopped misleading the Pakistan cricket fans and wider public with his empty protestations of innocence.
 
"We urge him to apologise publicly for his past actions and to start the process of redeeming himself by supporting the Pakistan Cricket Board’s anti-corruption initiatives and assisting the police and law enforcement bodies in the Asian sub-continent with the vital job of exposing and cutting off the primary source of cricket corruption, namely the illegal bookmakers such as those referred to in the Appeal Panel’s findings in this case."

The leg-spinner, who was branded as 'a grave danger' to the game by the Disciplinary Panel which heard his previous panel, played 61 Tests and 18 One-Day Internationals for his country.

© Cricket World 2013