Shoaib Akhtar has been banned for five years by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), effectively ending the fast bowler’s international career unless he wins an appeal. The PCB lost patience with Shoaib after he criticised the body for not offering him one of the top central contracts.

While his latest transgression seems relatively innocuous compared with earlier antics, such as attacking Mohammad Asif, his Pakistan teammate, with a cricket bat, the PCB spoke of “drawing a line in the sand”.

The 32-year-old was already serving a two-year probationary period and a 13-match ban for assaulting Asif in the run-up to the ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa last year. Shoaib and Asif were banned in 2006 after testing positive for nandrolone, the banned anabolic steroid, before they were cleared on appeal two months later.

Dr Nasim Ashraf, chairman of the PCB, said that Shoaib cannot play for or in Pakistan, but will be free to play for Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League (IPL) as it falls under a different jurisdiction.

The drawing power of the IPL was highlighted yesterday by Shaun Udal, the former England off spinner and a county veteran of nearly 20 years, as the biggest threat the English game has faced. “I can see the IPL ripping the heart out of our game,” Udal, 39, who announced his retirement at the end of last season but has been lured back by the offer of a two-year contract with Middlesex, said. “I can see people retiring early from playing for England and taking up three-year mega-deals in India.

“I hope that the ECB and IPL come to an agreement whereby it doesn’t ruin English cricket. If you look at the quality of the overseas players who are going to be coming this year, with no disrespect to them, the best are not there because you cannot get them.”

As if to prove his point, Middlesex announced that their overseas players will be Dirk Nannes, a left-arm fast bowler from Australia, and Vernon Philander, a South African seam bowler, who will stay until the arrival in June of Murali Kartik, the India spinner. Nannes replaces Friedel de Wet, another South African, who cannot get a work permit, and Ashley Noffke, the Australian fast bowler, who has been picked for the forthcoming tour to the West Indies.

Hampshire, Udal’s former club, were granted planning permission to increase the Rose Bowl’s capacity by 5,000, to 25,000, in a £45 million project in which a 175-room hotel will be built at the northern end.

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