PCB takes U-Turn, issues show cause notice to Younis Khan for leaving Pakistan Cup

Karachi: In a U-turn, the Pakistan Cricket Board has issued a show cause notice to former captain Younis Khan for walking out of a national one-day tournament after disagreement with the match officials.

After giving the impression yesterday that PCB chairman, Shaharyar Khan had accepted an apology from Younis for his misbehavior and allowed him to resume playing in the Pakistan Cup in Faisalabad, the PCB said today it had given Younis seven days to respond to the notice.

In a press release, the PCB chief clarified that while the board had all regards for Younis who has served the country with honour, he would follow the process dealing with such situation as stipulated in the relevant rules.

The release said since the match referee had already fined Younis 50 per cent of his match fees and charged him for violating several clauses of his central contract, it would follow the same procedure.

"In accepting the recommendations of Match Referee a fine of 50% of his match fee has been imposed on Younis Khan and for breaching the clauses of his central contract a show cause notice has been issued to Younis Khan to explain his position to the Board within seven days," the release said.

The senior batsman has been charged for breaches of several clauses of his contract and is not allowed to play again in the Pakistan Cup in which he was leading the Khyber Pakhtunkhawa team before walking out of the event to protest the attitude and decisions of the match officials.

"In light of the above pending disciplinary proceedings and due to the fact that a replacement player has already been added to the KPK Team, it has been decided, in the interest of the game, not to allow Younis to rejoin the Khyber Pakhtunkhawa team in the Pakistan Cup," the release said.

Shaharyar said: "Younis has been a great servant of Pakistan Cricket and a true role model for youngsters. I feel pained making this decision as we have to demonstrate that no one is bigger than the game. We will wait for Younis to respond before we proceed further in this matter."

The release confirmed that Younis had questioned the umpires' decisions in the Pakistan Cup match between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab teams.

The umpires reported this matter to the Match Referee who charged Younis under level-II of the code of conduct for players and player support personnel and fined 50 per cent of Younis' match fee.

It said under the code of conduct a notice of charge was handed over to the Team Manager of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mukhtiar Hussain and a hearing was set by the Match Referee.

However, the Team Manager informed that Younis had refused to accept the notice of charge and later left the team in protest.