Younis Khan (File)

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Islamabad - Former Pakistan captains Younus Khan and Mohammad Yousuf have been banned from the national cricket team effectively for life after the recent catastrophic tour of Australia, the cricket board said on Wednesday.

Two other players Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and Shoaib Malik were banned for a year by the six-man committee set up by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to investigate the December-February tour, in which Pakistan lost the Test series 3-0, the one-day matches 5-0 and the only Twenty20 match.

The committee - who held intensive and lengthy hearings with several of those involved in the tour - blamed a feud between Yousuf and Khan for the disastrous results, and recommended that the former skippers "should not be part of the national team in any format."

"Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan keeping in view their infighting which resulted in bringing down the whole team, their attitude has a trickledown effect which is a bad influence for the whole team should not be part of national team in any format," read the PCB statement.

The PCB said in a statement that the "recommendations of the inquiry committee have been accepted by PCB in totality."

Other recommendations included a three-million-rupee ($35 500) fine and six months' probation for all-rounder Shahid Afridi for biting a ball during a one-day match.

"For the shameful act of Shahid Khan Afridi, which has brought the game and country into disrepute, he be fined Rupees Three Million," the statement read.

"A warning be issued to him by the chairperson of the PCB and he be put on probation for six months, during which his conduct be strictly monitored."

Two other players were also fined and put on similar probation, Kamran Akmal and Umar Akmal.

The PCB said in conclusion that the radical disciplinary action will go down as being an historic day for the sport in Pakistan.

"The recommendations of the Committee will go a long way to arrest the continuing decline Pakistan cricket and improve the state of cricket in Pakistan. It is a landmark exercise which is an outcome of labor and hard work of the members of the Committee."