AFP

KARACHI FORMER Pakistan leg-spinner Danish Kaneria said on Monday he has hired a legal team for an English cricket board disciplinary hearing over a spot-fixing case that sent his former Essex teammate to prison.

Mervyn Westfield was jailed for four months in February after admitting that he accepted money to under-perform during a Pro40 match between Essex and Durham in 2009.

The 23-year-old seamer named Kaneria — arrested with him in 2010 but released without charge — as the link between bookmakers and players. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said last week that Westfield and Kaneria would face a disciplinary hearing in May.

“Kaneria has hired three lawyers, two from the UK and one from Pakistan to represent him before the England and Wales Cricket Board,” said a statement from the player’s lawyer Farogh Naseem.

Naseem said Kaneria, who took 276 international wickets in 61 Tests and 18 one-day games for Pakistan, denied the allegations.

Kaneria’s legal team have asked the ECB to delay the hearing until at least May 10 to give them time to study a 400- page evidence bundle.

In February, London’s Old Bailey court was told Westfield was paid nearly $10,000 to bowl so that a specific number of runs would be chalked up in the first over of a match between Durham and Essex in September 2009.

The 31-year-old Kaneria faces a life ban from the game if found guilty at the hearing.