A cricketer who misled the court by falsely claiming that he had been signed by Leicestershire in an attempt to avoid prison for domestic violence has finally been jailed. Mustafa Bashir, 34, of Cheetham Hill, forced his wife, Fakhara Karim, to drink bleach and hit her with a cricket bat - but last month got a suspended sentence for assault after claiming Leicestershire County Cricket Club had given him a contract. Now Bashir’s sentence has been reviewed, after it emerged his claims were false. He has been ordered to serve the 18 months which had been suspended behind bars. And he could face another jail term, if his falsehoods lead to a charge of perverting the course of justice.
He claimed that the Probation Service got it wrong when they recorded that he had played for Pakistan Under-19s - and that he had only ever claimed to play for Islamabad in a national competition.
He claimed that a letter sent to court purporting to be from a sports agent representing Bashir, which not only repeated the claim that he had played for Pakistan, but said he “has a very bright future ahead of him as he has been selected to play for Leicestershire cricket club”, contained ‘typographical errors’, and should have said he ‘had’ a bright future, and ‘had’ been selected to play for Leicestershire CCC.
Bashir then claimed that he had attended a trial at the club, and had been told they would "consider him for the first eleven", although he had not been given a formal contract. Defending, Bob Sastry, said: “Mr Bashir did not have any intention of misleading the court, and also would say at the time [his lawyer] was talking he wasn’t listening to everything that was said, was extremely emotional, and would say he didn’t hear it put forward on his behalf that he had a contract with Leicestershire CCC. His position would be that there has been a series of misunderstandings.”
Rejecting his claims, Judge Richard Mansell QC said: “I directed that you should produce evidence to support the claims you made that you had previously been offered a contract to play cricket for Leciestershire and that such an offer remained open to you if you kept your liberty.
“You have failed to produce any evidence to support those claims. All that you have produced today is a handful of emails showing that you may have attended an indoor net session at Grace Road in December 2014, an outdoor net session in April 2015, and a further email from you in December 2015 in which you enquire about the outcome of a trial you had attended at the club. There is no evidence as to what team you were trying out for or what the outcome was.”
