Pak skipper Misbah banned for slow over rate

Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq has been banned from the first test against Sri Lanka in Galle that starts on Friday as punishment for his team’s slow over-rate in the final match of the one-day series. The visitors were three overs short of the required rate during Monday’s match in Colombo, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said in a news release on Tuesday. The ICC added that this was a “serious over-rate offence” in limited-over cricket. [caption id=“attachment_349901” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The ICC added that this was a serious over-rate offence in limited-over cricket. AFP”]  [/caption] A Pakistan Cricket Board spokesman told Reuters that Misbah would be replaced as skipper on Friday by vice-captain Mohammed Hafeez. Hafeez has captained Pakistan in two Twenty20s but has yet to lead the team in a one-dayer or a test. The Pakistan players involved in Monday’s encounter, a game they lost by two wickets to suffer a 3-1 defeat in the series, were fined 40 percent of their match fees by the ICC. The fines were based on a 10 percent penalty for each of the first two overs and a further 20 percent for the additional over they failed to bowl in the allotted time of three and a half hours. It is the second time in six months an international captain has been suspended for a slow over-rate. India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was also banned for the fourth test against Australia in January. Dhoni was punished for incurring two over-rate breaches in the same form of the game in a 12-month period. India were three overs short of their required rate in a test against West Indies in Barbados in June 2011 and then two overs short in Perth this year. Reuters