A FORMER Bolton Cricket League player has been jailed for beating his wife with a bat and forcing her to drink bleach.

Mustafa Bashir, 33, had previously been spared prison after claiming he would lose an offer to play professional cricket.

Bashir was given a suspended sentence at Manchester Crown Court on March 22 for assaulting his wife, Fakhara Karim.

Judge Richard Mansell QC was told at the time that if Bashir was spared custody he would be employed as a professional player by Leicestershire County Cricket Club and was "about to sign the contract" when he was arrested for beating his wife.

Bashir had produced a letter, purportedly from his agent, to back his claim.

But the club later said this claim was "wholly false".

Bashir played in the Bolton Cricket League with a spokesman for Heaton Cricket Club confirming that he represented the side last year.

He was given an 18-month sentence, suspended for two years, after admitting assault occasioning actual bodily harm, assault by beating, destroying or damaging property and using a destructive substance with intent to maim. 

At the same court today, Judge Mansell revoked the suspended sentence and imposed one of immediate custody.

Judge Mansell had ordered the case back to court under the "slip rule" which allows judges to re-sentence if new information comes to light.

At Friday's hearing, Bashir denied telling probation officers or his lawyers that he had a job offer to play professional cricket and instead it was suggested there had been a "series of misunderstandings".

He had, in fact, only played as a semi-professional in the Bolton Cricket League and on two occasions had net session practice with Leicestershire - who denied any knowledge of him.

Judge Mansell had asked Bashir to produce evidence of any job offer but said the defendant had produced only a "handful of emails" and "not a shred of evidence" to support his claims.

Imposing the new sentence, the judge told him: "You were clearly making a claim to the court you had a career in professional cricket ahead of you which was false.

"You made that quite clearly in the hope you would avoid a prison sentence.

"There's not a shred of evidence you were ever chosen to play for Leicestershire County Cricket Club, let alone you had received any offer of a full time contract."

A spokesman for Heaton Cricket Club confirmed to the Bolton News that Bashir played for them last year.

Bashir, of Hebers Court, Middleton, was said to have beaten his wife with a cricket bat and forced her to drink bleach.