Pakistan cricketers Mohammad Yousuf and Younus Khan have been banned from representing their national side.

The pair were punished by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for their conduct during the tour of Australia, with claims the duo were responsible for "infighting which... brought down the whole team".

Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and Shoaib Malik were both banned for a year and fined more than £15,000 each while Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal and Umar Akmal were also heavily fined.

The punishments come after claims of "ball-biting" by Afridi, public outbursts against selection policy by the Akmals and, in the case of bans for Yousuf and Younus Khan, alleged player unrest against Yousuf's captaincy style.

"This will go a long way to arrest the continuing decline of Pakistan cricket and improve the state of cricket in Pakistan," said the PCB in a statement.

Former players expressed their unhappiness with the ruling, with ex-captain Rashid Latif remarking: "You can't hand out such severe punishments to players of the calibre of Yousuf and Younus Khan."

Inzamam-ul-Haq, meanwhile, asked: "Why was action not taken earlier against these players? Why did the board keep quiet for so long when the team was on tour?"

Nadeem Sawar, the general media manager of the PCB, denied the board's ruling was overly strict.

"This is not a harsh decision because the committee has recommended that these steps are necessary and mandatory to keep the team in order," he said.

"The PCB believes team discipline is essential and it does not matter whether the players are senior or junior.

"The morale of the other players will be up as this would let them know that any breach of discipline would not be tolerated in future."
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