Afridi to face discipline committee: PCB

The Pakistan Cricket Board on Thursday turned down a request from sacked one-day team captain Shahid Afridi to play for Hampshire and instead announced a disciplinary hearing on June 8.

A senior board official said that Afridi had been sent a mail directing him to appear before a three-member disciplinary committee on June 8 in Lahore.

"He will be given a full and fair opportunity to express and defend himself in these disciplinary proceedings," chief operating officer, Subhan Ahmed said.

"We have scheduled the hearing for next week so that the disciplinary committee can also hear out his request for a NOC to play in England. It is their prerogative now what they do," he said.

The row between Afridi, 31, and the board deepened since he announced his retirement from international cricket on Monday and accused the board of not respecting senior players and also playing games with him.

Afridi, who was sacked as captain after leading the national team to the World Cup semi-final and a 3-2 series win over the West Indies, has been hitting out at the board in the last few days. He accused coach Waqar Younis and manager, Intikhab Alam and a national selector of mistreating him.

The board has since initiated number of disciplinary measures against him including canceling his central contract and revoking his NOC's to play in foreign leagues.

Afridi yesterday in his reply to the show cause notice issued to him by the board had admitted he had violated clauses of his central contract and was ready to face the disciplinary hearing but had requested the board to grant him permission, in the meantime, to play for Hampshire in the English T20 league.

The committee is headed by Sultan Rana, who is director domestic cricket and includes two other board members, Shafiq Ahmed and Usman Walia and will be assisted by the board's legal advisor, Tafazzul Rizvi.

Subhan made it clear that it was also painful for the board to get involved in a dispute with a cricketer who has been the national team captain until the West Indies series 2011.

"There are numerous contributions by Shahid Afridi to Pakistan cricket. But I think people need to understand that this is purely a disciplinary issue," he said.

"As the body managing cricket in the country we are duty bound to maintain discipline at all levels," he added.

He said Afridi may file an appeal against any order of the disciplinary committee.

He said the forum available is the Appellate Tribunal. Under PCB's Constitution, PCB maintains an independent panel of arbitrators who are all eminent retired judges of High Courts.

Afridi who has played 325 ODIs and 27 tests is presently in England but his playing for Hampshire has been blocked due to the board canceling his NOCs.