A Pakistan court has dismissed disgraced former cricket captain Salim Malik's appeal against a life ban from the game for match-fixing. "The court has dismissed Malik's revision appeal and the full judgement would be released later this week," a Lahore High Court official told AFP.

Lahore High Court judge Justice Karamat Nazir Bhandari accepted the appeal hearing last year after a civil court rejected the application. In May 2000 the Pakistan Cricket Board banned Malik from playing cricket at any level and holding any office after implementing recommendations of a match-fixing inquiry conducted by Justice Malik Mohammad Qayyum.

The Qayyum inquiry, conducted between September 1998 and October 1999, found evidence of Mailk's involvement and also recommended a life ban for former pacer Ataur Rehman and fined six others including current captain Waqar Younis.

Malik, 37, who played 103 Tests and 283 one-day internationals for Pakistan until 1999, was clearly disappointed by the setback. "The ban has not only affected my career but my whole life," he said. "For me it's not a matter of playing again for Pakistan, its a matter of cleaning my image and for that I will fight till the last."

Malik was first accused of involvement in match-fixing by Australian trio Shane Warne, Mark Waugh and Tim May who alleged he offered them bribes to underperform during Australia's matches on the 1994-95 tour of Pakistan. Malik's name also featured in an Indian match-fixing inquiry released in November 2000 while former South African captain Hansie Cronje also linked him with match-fixing. Cronje and India's Mohammad Azharuddin are two other captains serving life bans for match-fixing.

The match-fixing scandal has rocked cricket since 1994, prompting the International Cricket Council to form an anti-corruption unit to curb the menace.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd