Mohammad Yousuf and Younus Khan international careers terminated, others punished

[Iridium]

Oh yes, axing your most senior players will definitely help Pakistan on the way to success. What an absolutely moronic decision by the PCB. Maybe all the banned players should pop over to England and look to qualify for selection.

 

[AkshayS]

^:laugh

 

[Dabi]

How can someone be banned for non-performance on a tour? And if we are talking of in-fighintg, why not ban all parties? Shoaib and Afridi included?

Dabi added 2 Minutes and 32 Seconds later...

Match Fixing! Until we get the names of the two players the ICC has evidence against, it will all be conjecture. I don't think anyone else has gotten a life ban for bad performance, and as far as I can remember all the life bans in cricket have been for match fixing.

Salim Malik, Hanse Cronje, Atar Rehman, M Azzarudin, Ajay Sharma

If it was match-fixing? Wouldn't they come out and say it? Why hide the fact that these two had fixed the match and say we are banning them for "in-fighting"? Wouldn't it be easier just to say that these guys fixed a match, so they're being banned?
Besdies, if they really did fix a match, they'd be getting banned from domestic as well. Although I'm sure that even if it is match fixing, it won't be the Sydney one, that was just an excercise in stupidity, nothing else.

 

[pcfan123]

Never know what to believe from PCB officials mouths, I can see them trying to cover up a match fixing incident to save Pakistan cricket some embarrassment in what has already been a very embarrassing year

 

[Amiya]

Tbh i think both Yusuf and Younis must have been banned for fixing. Banning lifetime for poor performance can't be accepted.

 

[SaiSrini]

PCB could think that coming out with the match fixing slur will damage the country's reputation too (already they have seen a few people get punished for it, and the cloud of match fixing always hangs around their neck everytime they lose). And because of this, they might let Younis and Yousuf play domestic and county cricket because they might want to back it up that its not match fixing.

Life ban for non-performance and in-fighting sounds atrocious, to say the least

 

[irottev]

If Pakistan are going to do this then the ICC needs to take away their test status and demote them to minnows in ODI and T20 cricket. They don't deserve to be there if they're going to make a mockery of the international game.

The only thing I can see which makes these bans acceptable if there was match fixing. Not sure if anyone remembers but at the time this was all happening I actually said quite seriously that it looked like match fixing.

This guy was onto it too:
http://www.planetcricket.org/forums/1675581-post1973.html

 

[Dabi]

The match fixing issue seems to be the only logical thing but personally I believe that match fixers should be brought out in the open, the PCB should publicly state the nature of their crimes and they should be made an exmaple out of. Based on what the PCB has said, it just makes them seem retarded (not that they were considered intellectual geniuses before) and the decision itself as SaiSrini said; atrocious.

 

[_Nabeel_]

Just saw this and WTF???
banned for NON performance????
even Ajay Jadeja's ban was removed after 5 years even he was a match fixer.....

Its really a Great Great Blow and a ultimate black Day for Pak Cricket

 

[Dabi]

Just saw this and WTF???

That was my exact reaction. As for this being a black day...I Guess we have more of those than ordinary ones! :

 

[piriyanth]

Very stupid decision by the PCB, they are like one of Pakistan's greatest players ever.

Now that they don't have many senior players left, I won't be surprised if Bangladesh beats them.

 

[OKP]

This is insane. It just keeps getting worse for Pakistan cricket.

 

[Varun]

! PCB keeps dropping the axe on their own feet.

 

[piriyanth]

So who'll be their test captain now, Razzaq?

 

[Harishan]

Completely bizarre decision by the PCB! Why on earth would they give two of their most experienced players lifetime bans? I know Yousuf's captaincy in the test series was a bit of a worry and YK wasn't "communicating with the board", but surely these things don't warrant for a life ban..