PCB won't object if Malik's ban is lifted

The PCB will not object to any decision by the Supreme Court of Pakistan to lift the lifetime ban on former captain Saleem Malik.

Malik was banned in 2001 from playing cricket, holding any office and from involvement in any cricket-playing activity on the recommendations of an inquiry into match-fixing conducted by Justice Qayyum, then a high court judge and currently Pakistan's Attorney General.

Malik appealed against the ban in the Lahore High Court, but after it was turned down, approached the Supreme Court the same year. The matter lingered on in Pakistan's highest court until earlier this month, when they granted Malik a right to appeal.

Malik had regularly expressed his desire to move into coaching and in the recent past toyed with the idea of opening up an academy, only to have the suggestion shot down because of his ban.

And as the court prepares to hear the appeal tomorrow, in a further boost to Malik's hopes, the PCB has said they will not stand in the way if the ban is overturned.

"This was not a ban imposed by the PCB or any administration," Tafazzul Rizvi, the board's lawyer, told Cricinfo. "This was a recommendation of an independent inquiry and the board at that time only implemented the recommendation. If the Supreme Court now overturns the ban, we will have no issues with that decision."