KARACHI: Umar Akmal loves to flirt with disaster. The out-of-favour batsman has once again shot himself in the foot by dropping a bombshell which could land him in serious trouble.
According to details, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has summoned the discarded Test cricketer after he claimed in a media interview that he was approached with the offer of being paid $200,000 for ‘leaving two balls alone’ in the contest against arch-rivals India in the previous edition of the ICC World Cup.
Umar also claimed that he gets spot-fixing offers every single time Pakistan play India, which has majorly been in ICC tournaments or the Asia Cup.
The Lahore-based batsman said he was made the offer in the 2015 ICC World Cup in Australia and New Zealand - a tournament in which Pakistan went till the quarterfinal stage.Pakistan and India were in Group B and played their only contest at the Adelaide Oval. India maintained their unbeaten run against Pakistan in the World Cup history, winning by 76 runs.
Umar faced a mere four balls and fell for a duck to left-arm orthodox Ravindra Jadeja.“I had got an offer during the World Cup to leave two balls alone and they were willing to pay me $200,000 for that,” Umar said in a TV interview.
“It was our first match against India in the 2015 World Cup... in fact, every match I play against India, they offer me money to make some excuse and opt out of the game. But I have told those people that I am very sincere about playing for Pakistan and to not talk to me on this topic ever again,” he added.
It is unclear whether Umar had previously reported these alleged approaches to the anti-corruption authorities, and therein could lie a problem for him. While there is no evidence to suggest Umar has been involved in any corrupt activity, failure to report an approach is also a punishable offence under PCB and ICC rules. He had officially reported corrupt approaches in 2014 during the England series in the UAE.
Umar’s claim has sparked a quick action from the PCB, who has asked the 28-year-old to explain his comments.The International Cricket Council (ICC), meanwhile, has said it wishes to speak with the cricketer urgently.
“The ICC is aware of a recent interview given by Umar Akmal. Whilst we note that there is no suggestion that any ‘fix’ actually took place, the ICC is reliant on players to report any corrupt approaches in a timely manner. This is critical to our efforts to gather information on potential ‘fixers’ and to disrupt and prevent their efforts to corrupt the game. As such we are taking Akmal’s comments very seriously,” the ICC statement said.
“We have launched an investigation and wish to speak to Mr Akmal as a matter of urgency. Our Anti-Corruption Unit is committed to working to uphold integrity in cricket and would urge anyone with any information to contact us via contactacuicc-cricket.com,” the statement added. –with inputs from agencies