TIME has come for the Pakistan Cricket Board to lift the ban on Test leg-spinner Danish Kaneria in the wake of the clearance of Mervyn Westfield by the English authorities, allowing the paceman to return to minor counties cricket a year ahead of schedule after serving a ban for corruption.
It seems quite illogical that the ban on Kaneria, with 261 Test wickets, remain in tact while other tainted cricketers, Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif, have made their way to national and internationalcricket.
Kaneria was punished by the English Cricket Board for spot-fixing in a county match in 2009 but surprisingly the Essex police did not file any charges against him.
He was alleged to have induced Westfield to concede some runs in return for money.
Nor was the Karachi-based spinner punished by the International Cricket Council. Preventing the bowler from playing cricket, which is his bread and butter, without any sound explanation, is against the tenets of justice. This has also raised questions about the PCB`s policy of having two sets of rules vis-à-vis Butt, Asif,Amir and Kaneria.
It can talce cue from the Bangladesh Board which has lifted a 10-year ban on former international cricket umpire Nadir Shah allowing him to officiate domestic matches. Shah was banned in 2013 in a match-fixing allegation for cash.
