Umar Akmal: “The team management at that time did not raise a voice for me and they have been silent till today”
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Pakistan batsman Umar Akmal has accused the team management of standing idly by and doing nothing during the time he had problems with former head coach Mickey Arthur.
Both he and Arthur have had a lot to say about each other, especially during Arthur’s reign as the national team’s head coach from 2016 to 2019.
Akmal didn’t play a lot of international cricket during that time, but expressed his disappointment that the team management didn’t offer any support.
“The team management at that time did not raise a voice for me and they have been silent till today,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
The 32-year-old has made his domestic comeback after being banned for failing to report corrupt approaches ahead of the 2020 Pakistan Super League (PSL).
He was given a three-year ban at first, but it was halved to 18 months after an appeal in July 2020.
It was further reduced to 12 months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), but Akmal was also fined 4.25 million Pakistani rupees.
He played for the Quetta Gladiators in this year’s PSL and scored 101 runs in five matches, which included a top score of 50, at an average of 20.20 and a strike-rate of 174.13.
He then accumulated 135 runs in seven games for Central Punjab in the Pakistan Cup at an average of 19.28.
Currently, the veteran batsman is playing for the Jammu Janbaz in the Kashmir Premier League (KPL), where he has made 19 runs in three matches at an average of 9.50 and a strike-rate of 67.85.
While he has spoken about his hunger to play international cricket again, Akmal was not included in Pakistan’s team for the Netherlands ODI series or the Asia Cup.
Pakistan squad for Asia Cup: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Mohammad Hasnain, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir
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