A lawyer representing Salim Malik, the only Pakistani player ever to be banned for life, on Tuesday accused cricket authorities of delaying his appeal against match-fixing allegations.

“The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is employing delaying tactics but they will not be able to justify their wrong decision,” Malik’s lawyer Raja Jahanzeb Akhtar said after the appeal was adjourned until May 20.

Former skipper Malik became the first player ever to be banned for life in May 2000 when the PCB implemented recommendations of a year-long match-fixing inquiry concluded the previous October.

“My client is subjected to frustration while the PCB’s lawyer asks for adjournment after adjournment. We have requested the court to take notice,” Akhtar said.

“In the first hearing last month he was not prepared, and now he was missing,” he said.

PCB lawyer Asgher Haider denied he was attempting to stall proceedings, insisting he had missed Tuesday’s hearing due to commitments at the Supreme Court in Islamabad.

Malik’s ban followed allegations from Australian trio Shane Warne, Tim May and Mark Waugh that he had offered them bribes to under-perform during Australia’s 1994-95 tour of Pakistan.

His name was also mentioned by former South African captain Hansie Cronje as a link to bookmakers in a match-fixing report in India. Cronje and former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin were also banned for life last year.

Pakistan’s two defeats — against minnows Bangladesh and arch-rivals India — in the 1999 World Cup in England were widely alleged to be rigged.

Malik, 37, now lives a secluded life but made a rare public appearance last month when the PCB honoured him at celebrations to mark the 10th anniversary of Pakistan’s only World Cup win in 1992.

The middle order batsman played 103 Tests and 283 one-day internationals for Pakistan from 1981-82 until the 1999 World Cup.

Pakistan has yet to release the findings of a separate official inquiry conducted last year into the 1999 World Cup.