Shoaib Akhtar may yet play in the Indian Premier League for Kolkata Knight Riders after his five-year ban was suspended for a month by the Pakistan Cricket Board Sunday.

His plea for a temporary suspension so that he can play in the IPL was accepted by a PCB tribunal. Justice Aftab Farrukh said the ban was delayed until the next hearing on June 4.

“Since it will take time to dispose of Shoaib's regular appeal against the ban the tribunal felt that preventing him from playing in the league would have been an additional penalty on him," Farrukh was quoted as saying by Reuters.

“It would have been an additional penalty which has not even been prescribed by the disciplinary committee of the board which banned him from playing in or for Pakistan but not outside Pakistan.”

Kolkata franchise owner and Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan asked Shoaib to apologise to the PCB committee so that he can play some part in the inaugural IPL after his $425,000 sale at auction. Coach John Buchanan and captain Sourav Ganguly are likely to have the last word on his participation subject to his fitness.

Shoaib was banned for five years by the PCB last month for several incidents of indiscipline and violating the conditions of a two-year probation, which was handed down after striking team-mate Mohammad Asif on the leg with a cricket bat in South Africa last September.