FOR several reasons, many people cheered when lying sportsman Mustafa Bashir was jailed for beating his wife with a bat and forcing her to drink bleach.

Bashir, a former Bolton Cricket League player, originally lied in court when he told the judge he was about to join Leicestershire County Cricket Club as a professional. As a result, he was spared jail.

When the club denied this, though, he was hauled back to court and jailed for 18 months. This sends out just the right message that such violence is never acceptable, and the folly of telling courts a cowardly lie.