Kaneria fights for national return

Danish Kaneria has resubmitted a communication from his former county Essex to the PCB's integrity committee in the hope that it will be enough to clear him to be selected once again for Pakistan. The communication, ESPNcricinfo understands, is an email the club sent Kaneria last November, primarily explaining the decision not to offer him another contract.

The legspinner, currently Pakistan's leading Test wicket-taker has not played since last summer after becoming embroiled in a spot-fixing scandal while at Essex for which he was arrested but eventually released by police. He was selected as part of the squad to face South Africa in a series in the UAE in November, but was prevented from travelling by the PCB at the last minute, the board saying he had not been 'cleared' by an integrity committee, newly-formed in the wake of the Lord's spot-fixing scandal the same summer.

Since then, Kaneria has submitted various financial records and documents and appeared in front of the committee several times but hasn't managed to satisfy members. Until recently, the committee was asking him for transcripts of his questioning by police in the case, something Kaneria and his lawyers insisted they could not provide as it was part of an ongoing investigation in the UK.

Last week the board accepted the reasoning and asked instead for Kaneria to provide them with a "clearance certificate" from Essex, as his employers at the time of the scandal. A misunderstanding emerged in reports that said Essex had provided a new clearance certificate which Kaneria had sent to the PCB. In actual fact, Kaneria has simply resubmitted a document he has already presented to the board.

In it, Essex explain the financial and strategic reasons behind not offering him another contract and thank him for the seven years he played for them. PCB officials have confirmed the receipt of this communication and that it was a document they had been given earlier. The board will now decide whether it qualifies as the kind of clearance they have asked for.