Kaneria fails to get Pakistan clearance

Pakistan's cricket board on Tuesday rejected a document submitted by leg-spinner Danish Kaneria in a bid to clear suspicions of spot-fixing and enable him to play for his country, an official said.

The 30-year-old became embroiled in an alleged spot-fixing scandal when police in Essex in Britain arrested him and team-mate Mervyn Westfield last year over a Pro-40 match in Durham in 2009. They were suspected of bowling deliberate no-balls and Westfield was charged ovr the case, but Kaneria was released without charge.

However, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) did not give Kaneria clearance to play in a tour of the West Indies last month, saying he still had to secure a "clearance certificate" from Essex, for whom he was playing at the time of the scandal.

Kaneria said last week that he had submitted a certificate from Essex police, but a PCB spokesman said that after consulting with lawyers and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), it was not satisfied with the document.

"We have responded to Kaneria's letter, and the supporting letter sent by him was six months old and was already on record of the PCB," spokesman Nadeem Sarwar told AFP.

"After taking legal opinion and ECB confirmation we are not satisfied, and we have asked Kaneria to provide a clearance certificate (from Essex)," said Sarwar.

Kaneria was part of Pakistan's Test squad to face South Africa in a series in the United Arab Emirates in November last year, but was prevented from travelling by the PCB at the last minute. The board said then that he had not been "cleared" by an integrity committee formed at the direction of the International Cricket Council (ICC) after a Test spot-fixing scandal in England in 2010.

KARACHI, AFP