The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Monday banned Umar Akmalfrom all forms of the game for three years, two months after initiating ananti-corruption investigation against the batsman.
The PCB had not revealed the specific reasons for initiatingthe probe against the batsman but had charged him for two breaches of Article2.4.4 of the Board’s Anti-Corruption Code in two unrelated incidents inFebruary this year.
“Umar Akmal handed three-year ban from all cricket byChairman of the Disciplinary Panel Mr Justice (retired) Fazal-e-MiranChauhan,” read a tweet from the offcial handle of PCB media department.
Akmal, 29, was suspended hours before his PSL team QuettaGladiators was to take on Islamabad in the opening match of the 2020 edition.
He is the younger brother of former Pakistanwicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal, who played 53 Tests, 58 T20s, 157 ODIs, andcousin of current captain Babar Azam.
Akmal, who last played for Pakistan in October, has featuredin 16 Tests, 121 ODIs and 84 T20s, scoring 1003, 3194 and 1690 runsrespectively.
Akmal, who promised a lot after making a hundred in NewZealand on his Test debut, failed to live up to the high expectations that camewith some fine performances early in his career.
Constant run-ins with the authorities also marred hisstop-start career.
Akmal had also escaped a PCB ban in February for allegedlymaking crude remarks to a trainer during a fitness test at the National CricketAcademy in Lahore.