Rediff

Lahore, May 3: Banned pacer Shoaib Akhtar's never-ending woes have been compounded further with Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Nasim Ashraf on Friday slapping a Rs 220 million defamation suit against him.

Tafazzul Rizvi, the legal counsel for Ashraf, filed the suit in a civil court in Lahore headed by Judge Hina Muzaffar. The court will begin hearing the case from Saturday.

The defamation suit has been filed against Shoaib for making allegations on a television show that the PCB Chairman had demanded money from him and other players for allowing them to sign contracts with the lucrative Indian Premier League.

Shoaib later retracted his claims and also made an unconditional apology before the appellate tribunal hearing his appeal against the five-year ban imposed on him by the disciplinary committee of the board.

Shoaib apologised for causing "grief and pain in particular to the Chairman of the board with the unsubstantiated and damaging allegations against him".

Rizvi said the filing of the defamation suit was a natural process of law.

As you are aware that we had already served a legal notice on behalf of Chairman PCB on Shoaib Akhtar for the defamation and defamatory statements he made on TV against the Chairman, Rizvi said.