High Court dismisses Kaneria appeal, life-ban upheld

Friday, 9 May 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: Former Pakistan leg-spinner Danish Kaneria’s appeal against his life-ban from cricket for spot fixing was dismissed by Britain’s High Court on Tuesday.

Kaneria, who has repeatedly denied any involvement in trying to engineer particular situations in a game, was banned by the England and Wales Cricket Board in June 2012 after a disciplinary panel found him guilty of corruption while playing for county side Essex in 2009. The 33-year-old was convicted of “cajoling and pressurising” former team mate Mervyn Westfield into accepting money for conceding a set number of runs in a match. He took High Court action after last year failing in an appeal to the ECB’s Cricket Discipline Commission against the severity of the ban. His claims were dismissed in a judgment published on Tuesday. “This judgment reaffirms the previous findings of guilt and recognises that the two Cricket Discipline Commission Panels’ decisions to impose a life ban were proportionate to the seriousness of the offences,” the ECB said in a statement. “It also makes it abundantly clear that there was no error of law or irregularity involved in the disciplinary process. This case has now been considered by two different independent panels and an experienced High Court Judge. Today’s decision supports the outcome of the earlier hearings both of which led to a finding that Mr Kaneria acted as a recruiter of spot-fixers and exploited his status as an international player to engage a young county professional, Mervyn Westfield, in corrupt activity.”