Asad Shafiq fined for code of conduct breach during Quaid-e-Azam Trophy match

Sindh Batsman Asad Shafiq has been fined 20 per cent match fee for a level 1 offence after raising voice related to Umpire’s decision during his team first-class Quaid-e-Azam Trophy match against Northern at UBL Sports Complex. It happened during a match on Sunday when Asad started questioning the decision of the umpire when he was given out in 15th over of the Sindh second innings.

Asad was reported by on-field umpires Faisal Afridi and Saqib Khan at the end of third day’s play for violating article 2.8 of the PCB Code of Conduct for Players and Player support Personnel. He accepted the charge raised against him and the sanction was handed out to him by the match referee Mohammad Anees hence there is no formal hearing needed.

Shafiq is one of the thirteen player to be awarded a central contract for the 2018-19 season by the Pakistan Cricket Board(PCB) has represented different domestic teams who are Karachi Whites, Pakistan International Airlines, Habib Bank Limited, Quetta Gladiators and Multan Sultans. He has played 77 Test matches for Pakistan and scored 4,660 runs and he also played 60 ODI matches for men in Green and scored 1,336 runs.

He is the most important member of Pakistani test lineup and relied heavily to score runs in the middle order for Pakistan. Ahead of a series of matches against South Africa in the United Arab Emirates, Shafiq both kept his place in Pakistan’s ODI squad and earned his first selection in their Test squad. Shafiq opened the batting in the first two matches, but after only scoring 19 and 1 he was moved down the order where he scored 43  and 36 runs. Shafiq has been recently criticized for his performance with the bat as he is not able to provide substantial support to other top order batsman in Pakistan cricket team lineup.