Cricketer who beat wife is jailed for lies

A CRICKETER spared a prison sentence for a campaign of violent domestic abuse after falsely claiming he would lose an offer to play professionally has been jailed

Mustafa Bashir (33), who formerly played for Oldham, beat his wife Fakhara Karim with a cricket bat and forced her to drink bleach.

But he was given an 18-month suspended sentence at Manchester Crown Court on March 22 for assault after claiming he was about to sign for Leicestershire County Cricket Club when he was arrested.

Bashir, of Cheetham Hill, had produced a letter, purportedly from his agent, to back his claim. But the club later said this was "wholly false".

At the same court on Friday, Judge Mansell QC reviewed the original suspended sentence he had given Bashir.

Jailing him for 18 months, he said Bashir could also face another jail term if his lies lead to a charge of perverting the course of justice.

"You were clearly making a claim to the court you had a career in professional cricket ahead of you which was false," said Judge Mansell.

"You made that quite clearly in the hope you would avoid a prison sentence.

"There's not a shred of evidence you were ever chosen to play for Leicestershire County Cricket Club, let alone you had received any offer of a full time contract."

At Friday's hearing, Bashir denied telling probation officers or his lawyers that he had a job offer to play professional cricket and instead it was suggested there had been a "series of misunderstandings".

He had given the court a letter from Abid Riaz, a sports agent with the Pro Elite Sports Agency in Bolton, claiming he "had a very bright future ahead" with Leicestershire.

Bob Sastry, defending Bashir, suggested this was a "typographical error" and should have read "would have had a very bright future if he had been selected" by Leicestershire.

The court heard there had been emails between Bashir and Leicestershire in 2014 and 2015 about net practice, but Lloyd Tennant, the scout for the club, could not remember seeing the defendant. Mr Tennant said he only scouted new players aged 16 to 24 and Bashir was 31 at the time.

Asked why Bashir did not "stick his hand up" in court when he knew false information was being given to him, Mr Sastry said: "He was not listening to everything that was being said. He was at that time extremely emotional. The defendant's position is that there's been a series of misunderstandings and he's not in any way wished to mislead anybody."

Bashir was also given a restraining order not to approach his wife.