Highlights:
- Umar Akmal handed a 3 year ban from PCB
- PCB handed the ban in a match-fixing scandal
Pakistani Cricketer Umar Akmal was handed a 3 year long ban by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Monday from all formats of the game after he pled guilty in failing to report the offer of fixing a match.
Umar who will turn 30 next month withdrew the challenge to the charges in March.
The batsman has been suspended from the 20th February under the anti-corruption code which states that if any player is approached to fix a game he/ she must report of the incident immediately.
The decision was announced by the disciplinary committee after a brief hearing of the PCB which charged Akmal with 2 breaches.
The board said, “The PCB referred the matter to the chairman of the disciplinary committee after determining that the batsman had not requested a hearing,”.
PCB’s Director of Anti-Corruption and Security Asif Mahmood said that authorities take no “pleasure in seeing a promising international cricketer being declared ineligible” and that too for a period of three years on corruption charges, but defended the ban as necessary.
He added, “I request all professional cricketers to stay away from the menace of corruption and immediately inform relevant authorities as soon as they are approached,”.
After the sentence was delivered, Akmal was driven away by his driver as he avoided the media to comment on his ban.
The 29 year old batsman burst onto the scene with a century in his debut Test match in 2009 against New Zealand, however, his career has been marred with disciplinary issues which have resulted in various fines and bans over the course of his career.
In 2014, Akmal was arrested after a scuffle with a traffic police officer who allegedly stopped him for a traffic signal violation.
So far Akmal has played 16 tests, 121 ODIs (One Day Internationals) and 84 T20Is for Pakistan.
The ban of Umar Akmal is the latest in the series of match and/ or spot fixing punishments meted on to the Pakistani Cricket players. In 2000, Salim Malik who has been the skipper of Pakistani Cricket team was banned for life and 6 more players including Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram were fined after a judicial inquiry on match fixing.
