KARANCHI: Scandal-hit Pakistani paceman Shoaib Akhtar had $83,000 docked from his pay cheque for discipline problems today, one of the heaviest fines imposed on a Pakistani player, the board said.

Akhtar was fined seven million rupees ($83,000) for criticising the cricket board in 2008. He has faced a series of controversies over the years, including hitting a player with a bat, and contracting genital warts that prevented him playing in a match. "A fine of seven million rupees has been deducted from Akhtar's payment due for January to November 2009," Pakistan Cricket Board spokesman Nadeem Sarwar said.

Akhtar has been on probation since October 2007, when he was fined $52,000 and banned for 13 matches for hitting Mohammad Asif with a bat, ahead of the Twenty20 World Championships in South Africa. The paceman features in the current one-day tournament but has yet to shine.

Akhtar was dropped from Pakistan's list of 15 contracted players in January 2008 after a disappointing year on the field, prompting him to criticise the PCB publicly — an offence that landed him a five-year ban in April 2008. A PCB-appointed tribunal reduced the ban to 18 months, but ordered the seven-million rupee fine. Akhtar appealled to the Lahore High Court, which suspended the ban but upheld the fine in July 2008.

"Akhtar had got a stay on the ban but there was no stay on the fine, so legally PCB is in the right," PCB legal adviser Taffazul Rizvi said.