Akmal submits reply to show-cause notice

LAHORE: Batsman Umar Akmal on Wednesday submitted his reply to the show-cause notice issued to him by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) following his media outburst against head coach Mickey Arthur.

Akmal recently alleged that Arthur had verbally abused him in front of Chief Selector Inzamam-ul-Haq. “I had talked to the media after verbal abuses by head coach Mickey Arthur became unbearable for me,” he said.

He went on to say that he had been tolerating injustices for the last three to four years.He said he continued to “suffer injustices” at the hands of coach Arthur, which prompted him to speak out finally.

Akmal said, “I had been tolerating the abusing for long. I couldn’t tolerate the unjust behaviour anymore,” said Akmal, hoping that the PCB chairman would do justice with him. He said his criticism was not aimed at the PCB. He only raised questions after suffering verbal abuse from the coach, he said.The batsman added that he had always respected the system and was submitting the reply to the show-cause notice despite not being in the central contract list. Akmal had also claimed that he was dropped from the team after an unjustified warning, andthat he wanted to inform the PCB regarding the behaviour of the coaching staff.Arthur has refuted the allegations and said the batsman was not telling the truth.