The rot in Pakistan cricket

An editorial in Dawn says Kaneria's ban points the inadequacy of PCB's programme of educating players to refrain from fixing.

[Kaneria's] penalty has not only put Pakistan under the scanner yet again as a cricketing nation, it has also thwarted the efforts of the Pakistan Cricket Board and the current set of players to get rid of the stigma of repeatedly bringing the game into disrepute.

Osman Samiuddin, writing in the National, says Kaneria's life ban for corruption was difficult to comprehend since he had a sincere on-field persona.

A personal view, a sympathetic one, was that Kaneria was in the mould of the great triers, not always bound to succeed and often left to presenting an unintentionally comic angle in his efforts to do so.

He revealed himself over years to be so earnest about his bowling, about breaking through as a limited-overs bowler, about wanting more Test wickets and to win more games, about net practice and gym sessions, even about his Essex career, that a life ban for corruption, on a personal level, has been more challenging to comprehend than the cases of Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif and Salman Butt.