A Pakistani cricketer who hit his wife with his bat and made her drink bleach has been spared jail - clearing his way to play for Leicestershire, a court heard.
Mustafa Bashir also slapped and choked his wife, berated her for wearing western clothing, tried to turn her against her own family and called her a "slag" when she went out socialising with friends he called "English slag girls".
The 34-year-old avoided jail after a judge said he was not convinced the victim was vulnerable.
Bashir's lawyer claimed at Manchester Crown Court that his client would sign a contract with Leicestershire as a professional player after being offered a contract shortly before his arrest.
However, a spokesman for the club has denied those claims, saying it has never spoken to Bashir or his agent, or offered him a contract.
The court heard how Bashir and Fakhara Karim met in their native Pakistan and married in 2013, but he controlled her and how she spent her money.
During the stormy marriage he struck Miss Karim over her back with his cricket bat because he felt she spent too long talking to a friend on the phone, telling her: "If I hit you with this bat with my full power then you would be dead."
The incident occurred at their home on New Year's Eve in 2014, with Bashir snatching his wife's phone and telling her he would search it to look at her messages. He bent her fingers back in attempt to break them and slapped her so hard she lost consciousness, the court heard.
In an earlier incident the couple were on a day out to Rochdale Lake in April 2014 when they argued over his cricket tour to the Netherlands.
Bashir, who plays for a local cricket league in Oldham, Greater Manchester, grabbed his wife by the neck and squeezed until a member of the public intervened, the court heard.
As the argument continued at home he grabbed her neck again and then picked up a knife and threatened to kill himself as his wife begged him not to.
In a statement Miss Karim said she was a confident, active and social woman before she met Bashir, but became a shell of her former self as she was abused.
Miss Karim, a hotel receptionist who was taking university studies, added: "It will take a long time to get back to how I was before. My education results got better after the split and I got a 2:1 and was able to qualify for my masters. I still find it very difficult to trust people.
"I can't see how I could trust another man again after what happened to me. I dreamt of being in a happy relationship and I do not feel now that that will ever happen with someone else."Bashir admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm but his lawyer said if he was spared prison he would be able to accept a place at Leicestershire County Cricket Club.
