Please don't portray me as a villain. I am not a villain Shoaib Akhtar

Shoaib Akhtar has begged for leniency after the Pakistan Cricket Board threw him out of the national squad for hitting a team-mate with a bat.

The paceman, who struck Mohammad Asif during practice on Thursday ahead of the ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa, fears a life ban from the PCB.

He said: "I am sorry and it should not have happened. I ask the authorities not to ban me for a lengthy period."

Pakistan have replaced Shoaib with 22-year-old all-rounder Sohail Tanvir.

Shoaib, speaking to reporters on Saturday after arriving at Lahore airport from South Africa, said the incident in the nets in Johannesburg had begun when the all-rounder Shahid Afridi had insulted his family.

He said: "I got agitated when Afridi used bad words about my family, and Asif was accidentally struck on the thigh.

"I can't tolerate it if someone uses bad words about my family, even if it's in a lighter vein."

Asif suffered a bruised thigh but will be fit in time for Pakistan's first game, against Scotland, on 12 September.

"Please don't portray me as a villain. I am not a villain," said Shoaib.

He insisted he would not now join the rebel Indian Cricket League, despite having previously rejected a high-figure offer.

A PCB official said Shoaib was suspended indefinitely until a disciplinary meeting.

The paceman will also have to explain his comments against a PCB doping tribunal.

Shoaib last week criticised the tribunal that banned him for two years and Asif for one after they tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone in October last year.