Pakistan bans Akhtar for 13 international matches

Pakistan banned paceman Shoaib Akhtar on Thursday for 13 international matches and fined him 3.4 million rupees (56,000 dollars) for hitting a teammate with a bat and other offences.

Akhtar faced five indiscipline charges, including that he struck fellow fast bowler Mohammad Asif on the thigh after team practice in Johannesburg ahead of the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup last month.

The ban, which dates back to matches that the "Rawalpindi Express" missed last month, is the biggest ever imposed on a cricketer at international level, barring previous life bans imposed for match-fixing.

"He has been banned for 13 international matches consecutively -- it will start from the first Twenty20 match in South Africa"

last month, the Pakistan Cricket Board's chief operating officer Shafqat Naghmi said.

The 32-year-old will be on probation for two years and will face a life ban in case of further disciplinary breaches.

"The incident was very serious and we took the decision after a lengthy debate and hearings,"

said Naghmi.

The PCB said Akhtar could appeal against both the fine and the ban.

But Akhtar, who was sent home from South Africa after the incident and has missed a string of matches in the past year through injury and indiscipline, said that he would not.

"I want to end this episode here as I am training hard and look forward to playing for Pakistan and helping them win,"

Akhtar said after the PCB announced the punishment at a press conference in the eastern city of Lahore.

"I have already apologised to Asif, to my team, to my countrymen and to the PCB. It was like a nightmare and happened in the heat of the moment,"

he said.

The PCB said Akhtar was charged on three counts relating to the Asif incident: hitting a teammate with a bat, accusing teammate Shahid Afridi of involvement and holding a press conference on the incident.

He was also punished for criticising a PCB doping tribunal that banned him last year after a positive test for steroids and for playing a charity match in England without permission in August this year.

The ban includes all seven matches of last month's Twenty20 tournament, the ongoing two-Test series against South Africa and four one-day matches which follow the Tests, Naghmi said.

Akhtar will therefore be available for the last of the five one-dayers against the Proteas to be played on October 29 in Karachi and can be selected for next month's tour of India.

Akhtar earlier blamed teammate Afridi, the mercurial all-rounder, for provoking him into lashing out with a bat.

"The incident happened after Afridi used nasty words about my family which I couldn't tolerate and Asif came in between the matter,"

Akhtar said as he arrived at the hearing.

But he later said that he wanted to learn from the error of his ways.

"I have suffered a lot and there were lessons to be learnt from that mistake. I now want to move my career ahead -- I will be extra cautious and careful in future,"

Akhtar said.

"Not playing cricket was like not breathing and I was in a state of trauma but this will end here."