Pakistani spin bowler, Danish Kaneria still
awaits clearance from the governing body of the game in the country,
Pakistan Cricket Board, after the player has been in the wilderness
since the first test against England, played at Trent
Bridge, Nottingham, last year.
Things took a bad turn for the Karachi based
player when the PCB asked him to provide details of the police inquiry
he underwent last season in England. Kaneria was allegedly involvement
in spot-fixing with his Essex team-mate, Mervyn
Westfield.
Kaneria was bailed after recording his
statement at the Metropolitan Police Office in London and was
subsequently cleared-off his involvement in the matter. Earlier this
year, his lawyer, Steve Haurigan held a press conference in Karachi.
Only a few days ago, Kaneria’s long standing
English county team Essex replaced him with South African fast-bowler,
Lonwabo Tsotsobe for the on-going season.
During the press conference, Haurigan had
blamed PCB's reluctance to clear the leg-spinner as the reason for the
snub by Essex and other English County sides.
Kaneria's lawyer added, "We want to know what
objections the PCB has against Danish continuing to play. Because they
haven't told him or us what those objections are. They are blocking him
playing not only in Pakistan for the Pakistan
team but also obviously outside Pakistan. The effect of the PCB being reluctant to clear Danish is that the county sides in England who are willing and almost queuing up to sign up Danish are reluctant to do it, understandably because they are not sure what's
going on."
On the other hand, PCB claims that they have
been asking Kaneria to provide a statement of his conversation with
Metropolitan Police which the leg-spinner has not done yet and the Board
has not cleared him for International cricket.
An unnamed PCB official, said, "We have been asking Danish to provide us with the statement he gave to the Essex police when he was under investigation in the spot-fixing scandal in county cricket last year. But so far he has not provided
us with the statement."
On his part, the leg-spinner with 261 test
scalps has stated more than once that the document the PCB requires is
not with him, since he was given clearance by Metropolitan Police. He
added that he does not have the recordings of his
statements, which the Board has asked for.
Kaneira was one of three players alongside the now discarded wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal and former captain Shoaib Malik, who were summoned before the PCB's integrity committee in order to gain clearance before the World Cup tournament
that finished last month in India.
The inquiry by the integrity committee was no
less a challenge for the Board itself, which forced the body to delay
the announcement of their 30-man World Cup preliminary squad until
January 5. Later, when the actual team for the tournament
was announced only Kamran got the nod for selection.
Kaneria was part of the squad selected for the test series against South Africa in UAE last November, but he was stopped from travelling to Dubai hours before his departure.
At present, the stalemate between him and the
Board continues, as PCB remains adamant that they would not clear him
unless he provides the requisite documents.
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