Umar Akmal: “I would like to say ‘don’t force me to reveal your secrets’. I have shocking secrets of players and if I reveal them, it will hurt their families too”
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Umar Akmal, the middle order batsman and cousin of Pakistan captain Babar Azam, has threatened his former teammates in the national team not to talk bad about him or he will reveal “shocking secrets” about them that will “hurt their families too”.
Akmal had earlier been called “immature” by some of his teammates, which led to him issuing the warning.
He added that if he were to reveal these dark secrets, “people will stop watching cricket”.
“Mostly cricketers say that I am not mature. And these cricketers are the ones whom I played cricket with. They are my seniors and I really respect them,” the 33-year-old was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
“I would like to say ‘don’t force me to reveal your secrets’. I have shocking secrets of players and if I reveal them, it will hurt their families too.
“Our people are too innocent and love watching cricket. I just respect that and don’t reveal the secrets I have. If these secrets are revealed, people will stop watching cricket.”
Akmal recently played for the Quetta Gladiators in the 2023 Pakistan Super League (PSL), where he scored 95 runs in six matches at an average of 23.75 and a strike-rate of 186.27.
The Lahore-born batsman last played for Pakistan in October 2019 and wasn’t picked for the team’s upcoming two-Test series against Sri Lanka, which will be held in Galle and Colombo from July 16 to 28.
Pakistan Squad for Sri Lanka Test Series:Â Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (vc & wk), Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Muhammad Huraira, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Noman Ali, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Saud Shakeel, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Shan Masood