Umar Akmal suspended under anti-corruption code

KARACHI: Pakistan’s perennial problem-maker Umar Akmal was suspended on Thursday under an anti-corruption rule, cricket officials announced, sidelining him from the Pakistan Super League pending an inquiry.

The 29-year-old has received numerous fines and suspensions in his 11-year career, and was arrested in 2014 after violating traffic rules in his native Lahore.

Without giving details about the latest case, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said Umar had been suspended and would not play in the Pakistan Super League (PSL), which started on Thursday in Karachi.

“He cannot take part in any cricket-related activity pending the investigation being carried out by PCB’s anti-corruption unit,” the board said in a statement. “As this is an ongoing investigation, the PCB will not make any further comments.” Umar was due to play for defending champions Quetta Gladiators in the six-team PSL. Often described as a talented yet undisciplined cricketer, Umar has played 16 Tests, 121 one-day internationals and 84 Twenty20 internationals since his debut in 2009. He last played for Pakistan in the Twenty20 series against Sri Lanka four months ago, failing to score in both matches.

Earlier this month, the PCB warned Umar over his conduct during a fitness test where he allegedly made crude remarks to a trainer. Last year, he was fined 20 percent of his match fee for violating the team’s curfew in Dubai after he went partying.

Umar also had run-ins with Pakistan’s former head coach Mickey Arthur, who sent him home after he failed a fitness test just weeks before the 2017 Champions Trophy in Britain.