Pakistan's Umar Akmal, who was deemed to be the next big thing, has always been a controversial figure at the national set-up and even suspended on numerous occasions by Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for his disciplinary problems.
However, the 29-year-old kept coming back to Pakistan line-up with some good domestic performances and discipline, but he has always found himself in the limelight for the wrong reasons both on and off the field from being nabbed from a party, getting detained for using an illegal fancy number plate on his car, and most recent misbehavior at fitness test.
Well, there is no wonder that his career has been marred by the controversies and now he was found to have breached Article 2.4.4 of the PCB’s Anti-Corruption Code and banned him from all forms of the games for the three-years after he failed to disclose the spot-fixing offers to him before the PSL 2020.
Following the latest development, several cricket fraternities and experts have expressed their views on Akmal’s suspension and now Aakash Chopra and Harsha Bhogle, two of the renowned cricket analysts, have also joined the others, saying the right-hander had loads of potential.
Chopra was quoted as saying in a YouTube video, “Umar Akmal had a lot of promise and talent. His temperament was sometimes questionable, but that is the case with most Pakistan batsmen and he was no different. It might have been an excuse in the earlier era that cricketers didn’t know the protocols with regards to reporting a fixing approach,”
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Former Indian batsman further added, “But nowadays, every player is taught about these things from the beginning of their career and you know that if someone has approached you with a suspicious offer, then immediately you have to inform. If you fail in doing that, then there is always a doubt that you might have accepted that offer or might be considering it.”
Meanwhile, Bhogle said that the talent itself doesn’t have much of a significance until you don’t know how to manage it and make the most of it while mentioning the name of Mohammad Ashraful, who was found guilty in the 2013 edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) along with Akmal.
He said on Twitter, “To our east and to our west, I saw two extraordinary talents. Mohammad Ashraful and Umar Akmal. It is who you are and what you make of your talent that determines how far you go. Talent by itself is so so inadequate,”
(With ANI Inputs)
