Pakistan Cricket Board bans batsman Umar Akmal from all forms of cricket for three years

Karachi: Temperamental Pakistan batsman Umar Akmal was on Monday banned for three years by the PCB for failing to report corrupt approaches ahead of the country’s premier T20 league this year. [caption id=“attachment_3860109” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Umar Akmal. AFP[/caption] The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had suspended the 29-year-old in February pending an anti-corruption investigation by its disciplinary panel. The PCB charged him for two breaches of Article 2.4.4 of its Anti-Corruption Code in two unrelated incidents in February this year ahead of the Pakistan Super League — a T20 event also featuring international cricketers. Akmal had decided against appealing against the charges last month. “Umar Akmal handed three-year ban from all cricket by Chairman of the Disciplinary Panel Mr Justice (retired) Fazal-e-Miran Chauhan,” read a tweet from the official handle of the PCB’s media department. Akmal was suspended hours before his PSL team Quetta Gladiators was to take on Islamabad in the opening match of the 2020 edition. Reacting to the ban imposed on him, former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja said time has come to criminalise match-fixing. “So Umar Akmal officially makes it to the list of idiots! Banned for 3 years. What a waste of a talent! It’s high time that Pakistan moved towards passing a legislative law against match fixing. Behind bars is where such jack asses belong! Otherwise brave for more!!” Raja tweeted. Akmal is the younger brother of former Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal, who played 53 Tests, 58 T20s, and 157 ODIs for Pakistan, and cousin of current captain Babar Azam. Akmal, who last played for Pakistan in October, has featured in 16 Tests, 121 ODIs and 84 T20s, scoring 1003, 3194 and 1690 runs respectively. Akmal promised a lot after making a hundred in New Zealand on his Test debut, but failed to live up to the high expectations that came with some fine performances early in his career. Constant run-ins with the authorities also marred his stop-start career. Akmal had earlier escaped a PCB ban in February for allegedly making crude remarks to a trainer during a fitness test at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore.