Haider fined over walking out on team

THE Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has fined runaway wicketkeeper, Zulqarnain Haider half a million rupees ($5,200) but allowed him to resume playing cricket under probation.

Haider fled the team hotel in Dubai last November while playing in a one-day series against South Africa and landed in London. He said he had been threatened by an unknown person who wanted him to cooperate in match-fixing during the series.

"I know what I did was wrong I should not have left the team hotel like that and I should have spoken to the team management at that time," Haider reporters after a disciplinary hearing yesterday. "I have told the committee I want to close this matter and I accept I violated the code of conduct. I told them to consider my case on compassionate grounds as my father is a cancer patient who requires my support and care."

PCB legal advisor Tafazzul Rizvi said: "It is the discretion of the committee to impose sanctions and they have fined him half a million and put him on a one-year probation," he said.

Haider who made his test debut last year against England at Edgbaston, scoring 88 runs, said he had no evidence to support his allegations or claims.