High Court Dismisses Danish Kaneria's Appeals Against Life Ban From Cricket

The High Court has dismissed former Pakistan leg-spinner Danish Kaneria's appeal against his life ban from cricket for breaches of the England and Wales Cricket Board's anti-corruption regulations. In June 2012, an ECB Cricket Discipline Commission Panel chaired by Gerard Elias found Kaneria guilty of two charges relating to his corrupt conduct in a one-day match between Durham and Essex in September 2009. The panel imposed a life ban on Kaneria and ordered him to pay the sum of Pound 100,000 towards the ECB's legal costs. (Kaneria Banned for Life)

Kaneria appealed that decision to a Cricket Discipline Commission Appeal Panel headed by Edward Slinger, a retired judge. The appeal was by way of a full re-hearing of all the evidence and took place over five days in April 2013. The Appeal Panel upheld the 2012 life ban and the original costs order and made a further costs order against Kaneria to pay a further Pound 100,000 in respect of the appeal hearing.

In August 2013, Kaneria then appealed to the High Court arguing that that the decisions of the Appeal Panel should be set aside due to alleged serious irregularities and errors in law by the Appeal Panel. In a judgment published on Tuesday by the High Court, Kaneria's appeals were dismissed.

Commenting on the decision, ECB Chief Executive David Collier said: "This judgment re-affirms the previous findings of guilt and recognises that the two Cricket Discipline Commission Panels' decisions to impose a life ban were proportionate to the seriousness of the offences. It also makes it abundantly clear that there was no error of law or irregularity involved in the disciplinary process.

"This case has now been considered by two different independent panels and an experienced High Court Judge. Today's decision supports the outcome of the earlier hearings both of which led to a finding that Kaneria acted as a recruiter of spot-fixers and exploited his status as an international player to engage a young County professional, Mervyn Westfield, in corrupt activity.

"Once again, in the light of the ruling today and the overwhelming weight of evidence laid against him, we would urge Kaneria to publicly admit his guilt in this matter, apologise for betraying the trust of his former team-mates at Essex and ask him to co-operate with both ECB and ICC in their ongoing efforts to root out corrupt activities within cricket."