KARACHI: Lawyers representing Shahid Afridi were confident on Tuesday that the former Pakistan captain will soon get a clearance to fulfill his contract to play in the ongoing English Twenty20 league for Hampshire.
Syed Ali Zafar of the legal firm Mandviwalla and Zafar told ‘The News’ in an interview that he was optimistic about the chances of the Sindh High Court (SHC) asking the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to reverse it decision of revoking all No Objection Certificates (NOCs) granted to Afridi.
“We are moving in the right direction and are positive about the chances of Afridi’s NOC getting restored soon,” said the seasoned lawyer just hours after Afridi filed a petition in the Sindh High Court (SHC) against PCB’s decision to suspend his central contract and revoke the NOCs. On his request, the SHC has suspended proceedings of the PCB disciplinary committee and has summoned the Board for a hearing on Thursday (tomorrow).
According to Zafar, it was because of fears that the PCB will begin ‘ex-parte’ proceedings against Afridi that the allrounder opted to go to court in his battle against the Board.
‘The News’ had reported on Tuesday that the PCB was mulling ‘ex-parte’ action against Afridi in case the player decided against attending the disciplinary committee’s hearing that was penciled in for Wednesday.
“We decided to file a petition after learning that they (PCB) were planning ex-parte proceedings,” said Zafar.
“By going to court we have averted an immediate threat,” he added.
Zafar said on the behalf of Afridi he and fellow lawyer Mehmood Mandviwalla are working on three important things. “We wanted to avoid any ex-parte action against Afridi, get his NOC restored and in a longer run get him cleared of the charges levelled against the player.”
Commenting on reports that Afridi has already pleaded guilty to breaching PCB’s code of conduct through an email to the Board last week, Zafar said that the allrounder didn’t actual admitted to guilt. “I’ve read it and it was an innocent mail that is out of context now,” he said.
Zafar said that Afridi will go all out for the appointment of an independent body to hear his case. “The disciplinary committee appointed by PCB cannot be unbiased as it is formed by Board employees,” he said.
He rejected PCB’s claims that it has the right to appoint any committee to deal with an ‘internal’ matter, saying that the Board is a public body and has to report to the government.
Meanwhile, Taffazul Rizvi, the Board’s legal counsel has confirmed the PCB will ‘assist’ the court in any way possible. Taffazul and PCB’s senior legal advisor Talib Rizvi will attend Thursday’s SHC hearing.
Agencies add: Afridi’s petition was filed after Pakistan coach Waqar Younis and manager Intikhab Alam described him as “immature and unwilling to listen” in tour reports leaked to the media on Tuesday.
“As captain I feel he is still very immature, has poor discipline, lacks game plan and is unwilling to listen to others’ opinion or advice,” wrote Waqar of the West Indies tour where Afridi led the team to a 3-2 win in May.
It was Afridi’s public criticism of Waqar last month over “undue meddling” in team selection, which forced the PCB to serve him with a show-cause notice and then dump him as captain.
In his report, Waqar said coaching staff had failed to improve Afridi’s behaviour, saying that “sometimes his volatile and immature nature have proved detrimental and led to unfortunate outcome of the game losses”.
Waqar said Afridi created a fuss during the fourth and fifth one-day match on the West Indies tour.
“Afridi came into the meetings with a decisive mindset and was refusing to discuss the playing 11 options for the team and behaved very inappropriately and walked out of the meeting,” wrote Waqar in his report.
“Afridi’s attitude and unwillingness to sort out matters led to a very uncomfortable dressing room environment which affected the players’ performance, resulting in the last two losses of the series.”
Alam said he tried his “best to defuse the situation”, but blamed Waqar for being a “little harsh and arrogant which creates problems” and accused Afridi of lacking temperament and being “highly hyperactive”.
“I told him not to speak to the press on his return home and if he had any serious issues with Waqar or anybody else he should speak to the PCB chairman (Ijaz Butt) directly,” wrote Alam. Afridi’s lawyer Mandviwala blamed the PCB for maligning his client by leaking the reports.
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