KARACHI — Pakistan's banned pace bowler Mohammad Asif has criticized the International Cricket Council (ICC) over his spot-fix suspension and has pleaded his innocence ahead of an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Asif told reporters Monday that a CAS hearing against his minimum five-year ban will be heard in February and one of the main tenets of his defense will be the fact the ICC imposed the suspension before his case went to a criminal court. He was found guilty in a London court and sentenced to prison, where he served a six-month term before being released in May. “The ICC was not fair to me. They imposed a ban on me even before my case went to trial,” Asif said. “I will fight on to clear my name as the charges against me are wrong.” The 29-year old, who played 23 Tests and 38 ODIs, was caught up in a spot-fixing scandal in 2010 while touring England with the Pakistan team. An independent tribunal set up by the ICC banned him and two other players, Salman Butt and Mohammad Amir for a minimum of five years in Feb. 2011 before the trio were found guilty in court and jailed in November last year. The independent tribunal rejected requests by the three to wait for the outcome of the criminal case. “I am also planning on writing a book in which I will reveal a lot of things,” added Asif, who preferred to stay in the UK after his release but is back in Pakistan for the funeral of a mentor and coach. Butt and Amir have also returned home after completing their jail sentences. Ganguly calls time on career India's record-breaking former cricket captain Sourav Ganguly is finally calling time on his career after deciding not to play in next year's IPL competition. The 40-year-old Ganguly, who quit international cricket four years ago, has been playing in the Twenty20 Indian Premier League tournament since its inception — most recently captaining the Pune Warriors, based in western India. But he told Monday's Times of India newspaper that his body could no longer take the strain even though he was contracted to play in the IPL next spring. — Agencies
