Lady Luck finally seems to be smiling on controversial pacer Shoaib Akthar. A day after he was cleared for participation in the Indian Premier League, ‘Rawalpindi Express’ as he is also fondly known, also got respite in a defamation case filed against him.

In a further softening of the stance on the temperamental speedster, the Pakistan Cricket Board will no longer pursue the defamation lawsuit it slapped on the fast bowler last month.The decision comes following a meeting between Nasim Ashraf, the board chairman and Shoaib at the house of a top political official on Sunday night in Islamabad.Shoaib Akhtar, who was banned for 5 years by the PCB, had got the PCB ruling suspended for a month by an appellate tribunal on Sunday.

Nasim Ashraf had also slapped a Rs 220 million defamation suit against him. The suit has been filed against Shoaib for making allegations on a television show that the PCB Chairman had demanded money from him and other players for allowing them to sign contracts with the lucrative Indian Premier League.Shoaib later retracted his claims and also made an unconditional apology before the appellate tribunal hearing his appeal against the five-year ban imposed on him by the disciplinary committee of the board.

Shoaib apologised for causing “grief and pain in particular to the Chairman of the board with the unsubstantiated and damaging allegations against him”.