Karachi: Controversial Pakistani pacer Shoaib Akhtar will appeal against the reduced 18-month ban slapped on him by the appellate tribunal of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), his lawyer said on Monday.

Though the tribunal actually reduced the original five-year ban to 18 months while slapping a seven million rupees fine, Shoaib’s legal counsel Abid Hasan Minto said the fast bowler would appeal against the punishment.

“Shoaib feels the 18-month ban is still very harsh and unjustified given the reasons for his being banned. We will either appeal in the high court or perhaps even before the tribunal,” Minto said.

“We have to first go through the full judgement of the tribunal in which it reduced his ban from five years to 18 months and fined him seven million rupees. After this we will decide where to appeal but in princi ple we have decided to appeal,” Minto said.

The three-member tribunal, headed by retired Lahore high court judge Aftab Farrukh, had earlier found the original five-year ban too harsh. But while reducing it to 18 months, the tribunal also fined the fast bowler seven million rupees.

Shoaib was initially banned for five years by the disciplinary committee of the board in March who found him guilty on several counts of violating the players code of conduct and also violating a two-year probation period imposed on him since last year.

The pacer who has represented his country in 46 Tests and 138 ODIs has remained in conflict with the board since last year when he was also banned for 13 matches and fined 3.4 million rupees for hitting teammate Mohammed Asif with a bat in South Africa. (PTI)