PCB to let Zulqarnain tell his side of the story

Karachi:

The Pakistan Cricket Board has said that it would give a fair chance to runaway wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider to explain his position before taking any disciplinary action against him for deserting the team midway through a series against South Africa in UAE earlier this month.

"The board will decide on how to deal with the Zulqarnain issue on basis of the findings of the fact finding committee that has investigated the entire episode. But in any case the player will be given a fair chance to give his side of the story," PCB legal adviser Tafazzuil Rizvi said.

Rizvi said lot of would depend on what the fact finding committee provided to the board.

"We will act on basis of the committee's report. In legal terms there is no doubt that he (Zulqarnain) has committed a breach of his contract by leaving the team hotel without informing anyone," Rizvi said.

"But even if we decide that there is enough ground to take disciplinary action against him we will not do it before sending him a notice and giving him a chance to respond to us," he said.

"If he doesn't respond then the board is legally in a position as his employer to take ex-parte action against him," Rizvi added.

The fact finding committee is due to submit its report to the board in two or three days time according to its head and Pakistan team manager Intikhab Alam.

"Whatever information we have managed to collect on the incident we will give it to the board in two or three days time. We have tried to get maximum information on this episode which was not good for Pakistan cricket," Alam said.

Zulqarnain left the cricket community stunned when he fled from the team hotel in Dubai hours before the fifth and final one-day international against South Africa.

Later that day, he showed up in London where he has claimed temporary asylum and said that he took the decision after getting death threats from alleged bookmakers after refusing to fix matches in the ODI series.