Lahore, Oct 11 : Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) today banned controversial fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar from playing 13 international matches and fined him a whooping Rupees 3.4 million rupees (56,000 US dollars) for hitting his teammate, Mohammad Asif, with a bat.

"He has been banned for 13 international matches consecutively -- it will start from the first Twenty20 match in South Africa last month," The News quoted the Board's chief operating officer Shafqat Naghmi, as saying.

Shoaib was involved in a brawl with Mohammad Asif in South Africa just before the Twenty20 World Cup and was sent back by the team management with a five-match ban, but the PCB treated the ban as indefinite.

The PCB constituted a three-man committee headed by Naghmi, Director Operations Zakir Khan and Director HR Naveed Cheema to look into the case.

Akhtar was earlier charged with breach of five conducts. (ANI)