Nearly 9 years ago, when Umar Akmal scored a hundred on his Test debut against a potent New Zealand attack at Dunedin, he was touted as the next big thing in Pakistan cricket. Today, he has almost faded away and finds himself on the sidelines of all three formats from the national team.

Akmal, who hasn’t featured in an international match since January 2017, recently made some scathing remarks concerning the attempted approach by the bookies to fix matches.   

Speaking to SAMAA TV, Umar said: “World Cup mai offer huyi thi ki 2 ball left kar do to hum tumhe 2 lakh dollar de denge.. Jo pahla match India ke khilaaf 2015 [World Cup] mai huyi thi, jitney bhi mai khelta hu match India ke khilaaf.. Deal thi ki yaar tum yeh match naa khelo koi bahana kar do to hum tumhe paise de denge” which means “I was offered in World Cup that you leave two delivers and we will give you 2 lakh dollars. The first match that happened against India in 2015 [World Cup] or any matches against India for that matter. The deal was that if i opt out from the match by making some excuses, they will deliver me the money”.

Watch the video below:

Umar Akmal might be out from the national team currently but he is still rated among the most gifted batsman in Pakistan cricket fraternity.

As far as Akmal’s credentials in international cricket are concerned – the right-hander has scored 1003 runs in 16 Tests at an average of 35.82 with 1 ton and 16 fifties. In 116 ODIs, Umar has amassed 3044 runs at 34.50 with 2 hundreds and 20 half-centuries while he has aggregated 1690 runs in 82 T20Is for Pakistan.