PCB slaps Umar Akmal with three-year ban

KARACHI: In a move that may well serve as the final nail in the coffin of his international career, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Monday handed Umar Akmal a three-year ban after he pleaded guilty to failing to report details of corrupt approaches made to him ahead of this year’s PSL.

The PCB announced in a statement that the 29-year-old Umar has been banned from all representative cricket which, more or less, means that the discarded Test batsman’s troubled international career could be over.

While Umar didn’t react to PCB’s announcement, his elder brother Kamran Akmal, also a Test cricketer, termed the decision harsh and made it clear that they would appeal against it.

The Board, meanwhile, announced that Umar has been justly punished with PCB’s legal advisor Taffazul Rizvi saying that the player was unable to defend himself against the charges that were leveled against him.

Umar’s case had gone directly to the PCB disciplinary panel after he opted to forego the right to a hearing before the anti-corruption tribunal, where he could have pleaded his innocence and contested the charges. His decision not to do that meant, in effect, that he would accept whatever sanctions Justice Fazal-e-Miran Chauhan, the disciplinary committee chairman, imposed on him.

The PCB had formally charged Akmal with two breaches of its anti-corruption code for two unrelated incidents on March 20. The charges come under Article 2.4.4, which deals with “failing to disclose to the PCB Vigilance and Security Department (without unnecessary delay) full details of any approaches or invitations received by the Participant to engage in Corrupt Conduct under this Anti-Corruption Code”.

Umar, who has played 16 Tests and 121 ODIs for Pakistan, represented himself at the hearing, while the PCB was represented by Rizvi. Later, a PCB statement said that Akmal had been heard “at length” before the verdict was passed.

Lt Col Asif Mahmood, PCB’s director of anti-corruption and security, said, “The PCB doesn’t take any pleasure in seeing a promising international cricketer being declared ineligible for three years on corruption charges, but this is once again a timely reminder to all who think they can get away by breaching the anti-corruption code.

“The anti-corruption unit regularly holds education seminars and refresher courses at all levels to remind all professional cricketers of their obligations and responsibilities. And even then, if some cricketers decide to take the Code into their own hands, this is how things will pan out.”

While Umar has never before been sanctioned for breaching any anti-corruption codes, this might not be the first time he had faced a corrupt approach. In 2018, he claimed in a TV interview that he had been offered money to spot-fix at the 2015 World Cup, separately claiming that he had also been made an offer to skip certain key matches against India. It wasn’t clear whether Umar had reported these alleged approaches to anti-corruption authorities, but he has never before faced sanctions from either the PCB or the ICC for the same.

The ban comes as the most significant setback for Umar, whose career has been littered with ups and downs. Repeated incidents of indiscipline since his debut in 2009 have meant that he has been fined and suspended, and an inability to stay fit has led to penalties as well. In September 2017, he copped a three-month ban for publicly criticising then Pakistan head coach Mickey Arthur, and earlier this year, he was reprimanded by the PCB for misbehaving after failing a fitness test, reportedly exposing himself to a trainer in frustration at one point.

However, his quality as a batsman meant that Umar stayed in contention despite the issues. When it seemed like Arthur had sidelined him for good, he was handed a surprise call-up for a home T20I series against Sri Lanka last year, in what was Misbah-ul-Haq’s first assignment as head coach. He was dropped again after consecutive golden ducks, but strong domestic performances meant the possibility of another call-up was never far away. –with inputs from agencies