Pakistan bans cricketers from playing after dismal Australia tour

Pakistan has banned three former captains and punished four other members of its national cricket team for their poor performances in a series of humiliating defeats during their tour of Australia last year
Former captains Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf were banned indefinitely from playing for Pakistan after the team lost nine matches during their winter tour of Australia. Another former captain Shoaib Malik was banned for a year.
Several other players were fined up to £40,000 pounds for offences ranging from indiscipline to ball-tampering.
Pakistan lost all three Test matches, five one day internationals and a Twenty20 game in one of its worst tours in the history of cricket in the country.
"Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan, keeping in view their in-fighting, which resulted in bringing down the team, their attitude has a trickle-down effect that's a bad influence for the whole team, should not be part of the national team in any format," the Pakistan Cricket Board said in a statement following an inquiry into the team's Australian disaster.
The report denounced another player, Shahid Khan Afridi, as "shameful" after he was caught tampering with the ball on television. Afridi initially said he was "smelling the ball." His actions had bought both the game and his country into disrepute, the report said.
The purge of its national team by the Pakistan Cricket Board follows a series of major setbacks for the sport in the country since the death of its coach Bob Woolmer during the 2007 cricket world cup.
Since then Pakistan has become a no-go zone for international cricket teams following last year's terrorist attack on the visiting Sri Lankan national team in Lahore. Six policemen and a team bus driver were killed in the attack, and seven cricketers and the team coach were injured.
Earlier this year, its top players were boycotted by Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket teams despite Pakistan having won last year's T-20 cricket world cup in England.
Despite this triumph, the squad has been blighted by faction fights and team spirit has been broken by leading players making public attacks on their team-mates and selectors.
Cricket commentator Ayaz Memon said Pakistani cricket had become like an Indian "soap opera." "They had a change of captain for the Australian tour, and the old captain played under the new. There were plots, sub-plots. People thought they should have won the Second Test, but after losing they lost everything. The captain complained his players were not supporting him," he said.
The PCB's purge was an attempt to restore discipline into the squad, but according to Mr Memon "it is closing the stable door after the horse has bolted." Cricket in Pakistan is now in a precarious position, where national teams are unwilling to tour there for fear of terrorist attacks, and its best players are shunned by the Indian Premier League," he added.
Pakistan has produced some outstanding players, and it would be "disastrous" for the sport if its current decline was allowed to continue unchecked, he said.