Umar Akmal’s 3-year ban reduced to half

LAHORE: Troubled Pakistan batsman Umar Akmal’s three-year ban has been cut to half by the independent adjudicator appointed by the Pakistan Cricket Board. Umar now has one and a half year ban for failing to report corrupt approaches earlier this year.

It was announced on Wednesday that Akmal’s ban was reduced to 18 months, which will effectively run from February 2020 to August 2021 after the 30-year-old’s sentence was reduced by Independent Adjudicator Justice (retd) Faqir Mohammad Khokhar. However, the batsman expressed dissatisfaction with the ruling and vowed to appeal.

Umar was slapped with three-year suspension by the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) Disciplinary Panel for not reporting approaches by corrupt elements.

The PCB panel had imposed the ban on Akmal after he had violated the Article 2.4.4 of the PCB’s code of conduct on two occasions.

Umar said that he would, after consultation with his lawyers, appeal again for the sentence to be reduced further.

“There have been many cricketers before me that have made mistakes but none of them were given a punishment as severe as I have been given. I will appeal once more to get my sentence reduced,” he said while speaking to media.

In a separate incident in 2018, Akmal had said that he was offered $200,000 by fixers to leave two deliveries in a match. He also claimed that he was offered money to skip matches against India.

The batsman also said that he was approached during the ICC World Cup 2015 played in Australia and New Zealand.

Akmal did not say if he had reported that to the anti-corruption unit.

According to ICC anti-corruption code 2.4.4 and 2.4.5, players are bound to report all the corrupt approaches made to them during any event and failure to do so carry a minimum punishment of five years.

Akmal was handed a three-year ban in April ahead of the Pakistan Super League. He had accepted his mistake but tried to justify his position.

His most recent international appearance was in last October in the T20 home series against Sri Lanka.

Akmal was provisionally suspended hours before his Pakistan Super League team Quetta Gladiators was to take on Islamabad in the opening match of the 2020 PSL.