The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will be filing an appeal in the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) against right-hand batsman Umar Akmal's ban reduction.
The PCB earlier banned Umar for three years following a breach of its two anti-corruption codes just before the start of Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2020, which the player had appealed against.
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After this, an independent adjudicator had been appointed, who, after an assessment of the case, reduced Umar's ban period to half.
In the latest development, however, the PCB has decided to file a fresh appeal in response to adjudicator's call.
“The PCB doesn’t take any pride in seeing a cricketer of Umar’s stature being banned for corruption, but as a credible and respectable institution, we need to send out a loud and clear message to all our stakeholders that there will be no sympathy whatsoever for anyone who breaches the regulations," the board said in a statement on Monday (August 10).
The anti-corruption codes that Umar violated relate to the failure of reporting corrupt approaches made to him. This happened despite attending "a number of anti-corruption lectures at domestic and international level", the PCB said, adding that the board has sent a draft proposal to relevant Pakistan government authorities to criminalize fixing in the country.
"In the draft paper, the PCB has proposed severe sanctions pertaining to corruption, illegal manipulation, betting, match and spot-fixing as well as aiding and abetting such conduct; and proposes the penalties to be imposed on individuals found guilty of engaging in such offences," the board stated.
