Akmal is currently one of the best upcoming batsmen Pakistan have
Pakistan batsman Umar Akmal may have thought that he would be getting on a flight to the land down under after being given permission by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to play in the Big Bash League, but the Sydney Sixers, who signed Akmal earlier in the year, have announced that they will be terminating his contract.
The Sixers decided to cut Akmal since he would only be available for one game and general manager Stuart Clark believes that the money from Akmal’s contract can be invested in another player who can commit himself to playing for the entire tournament.
“While it would have been great to have Umar here for the start of the BBL season, the short time frame offered is not in the club’s best interest and we have decided to see if a suitable replacement is available rather than continue down this path,” Clark was quoted as saying byAAP. “We are confident our strong roster will be able to cover the loss of Umar should we not find a suitable replacement.”
Meanwhile Pakistan spinner Saeed Ajmal will still be representing the Adelaide Strikers and the director of South Australia Cricket Association (SACA) Jamie Cox noted that it was an absolute honour to have him on board.
“The arrangements work for us at the moment, they work for us better than some of the other sides because we had originally intended for Saeed to be here for the first game anyway,” Cox said. “We’re still working on how that works for the latter end of the tournament, but for them to reverse their decision we’re very grateful.
“I know CA have been involved there, which has been great. To have him in our team albeit how brief it turned out to be will be pretty exciting. We’re hoping we can free that up for the back-end of the tournament where hopefully we’re well and truly alive and challenging for the trophy.
“Pakistan are at liberty to put out whatever program they like and we understand that’s how it works with international players, but we’re always keen to try and find whether there was an opportunity for him to reconsider and fortunately in this case they have, and we’re very grateful. It’ll hopefully work very well for us.”
Paksitan all-rounder Shahid Afridi was also supposed to be playing in the tournament, but cancelled his plans with the Sydney Thunder in order to train and get back in form in time for the upcoming limited overs series of India.