PCB condemns Umar Akmal’s 'reckless statements'

LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Friday strongly condemned "reckless statements made by batsman Umar Akmal with regards to his omission from the ICC Champions Trophy squad."

According to a statement issued by the PCB, "Umar was given as many as seven chances to improve his fitness and match the standards of his teammates, laid out by the team management."

The statement added, that Umar was given a program to improve his fitness like other players before the West Indies tour and after he failed the tests in Lahore, he was left out of the team.

After clearing another test before the squad selection on the eve of the ICC Champions Trophy in England, Umar was included in the eventual 15 member squad.

"The PCB wants to stress that the team trainer conducts fitness tests of squad members before each international assignment and the tests before the Champions Trophy were conducted as a continuation of the policy.

Once again Umar failed to attain the desired level of fitness and the team management was left with no option but to drop him from the squad."

Head Coach Mickey Arthur had placed Umar in his white ball format plans and gave him repeated chances for redemption, unfortunately, the batsman remained incapable of reaching the requisite fitness level.

The PCB awaits his response to the show cause issued to him yesterday and hopes that in the meantime, the batsman will refrain from making baseless allegations, the statement concluded. 

In late night posts on Twitter, Umar Akmal claimed that he had passed the fitness test for the Champions Trophy but after arriving in England Arthur took a dummy test and claimed Akmal had failed and sent him back.