Umar Akmal

Umar Akmal (Urdu, ; born 26 May 1990) is a Pakistani cricketer who played for Pakistan national cricket team between 2009 and 2019. He was banned by the Pakistan Cricket Board for eighteen months for not disclosing offers related to spot fixing until August 2021. Akmal made his One Day International (ODI) debut on 1 August 2009 against Sri Lanka, his Twenty20 International (T20I) debut on 12 August 2009 also against Sri Lanka, and his Test debut against New Zealand on 23 November 2009. He is a right-handed batsman and a part-time spinner. Like his two brothers, Adnan and Kamran, Umar has kept wicket for the national team in many ODIs. Domestically, he played for Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited for eleven years, before signing with United Bank Limited in August 2017. He has also played in many franchise Twenty20 teams around the world. In February 2020, he was suspended by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), after he had breached their Anti-Corruption code. In April 2020, the PCB banned him from cricket for three years, after he pled guilty to failing to report corrupt approaches. The following month, he lodged an appeal against his ban. In July 2020, Akmal's ban was reduced to one-and-a-half years, with his suspension running from February 2020 to August 2021.…

Umar Akmal (Urdu, ; born 26 May 1990) is a Pakistani cricketer who played for Pakistan national cricket team between 2009 and 2019. He was banned by the Pakistan Cricket Board for eighteen months for not disclosing offers related to spot fixing until August 2021. Akmal made his One Day International (ODI) debut on 1 August 2009 against Sri Lanka, his Twenty20 International (T20I) debut on 12 August 2009 also against Sri Lanka, and his Test debut against New Zealand on 23 November 2009. He is a right-handed batsman and a part-time spinner. Like his two brothers, Adnan and Kamran, Umar has kept wicket for the national team in many ODIs. Domestically, he played for Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited for eleven years, before signing with United Bank Limited in August 2017. He has also played in many franchise Twenty20 teams around the world. In February 2020, he was suspended by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), after he had breached their Anti-Corruption code. In April 2020, the PCB banned him from cricket for three years, after he pled guilty to failing to report corrupt approaches. The following month, he lodged an appeal against his ban. In July 2020, Akmal's ban was reduced to one-and-a-half years, with his suspension running from February 2020 to August 2021. In August 2020, the PCB appealed the ban reduction to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and Akmal appealed to the CAS to have his ban overturned. In February 2021, the CAS reduced the ban to 12 months and imposed a PKR 4.25 million (27,000 USD) fine on Akmal. In July 2021, Akmal apologised for not reporting corrupt approaches last year, which led to him being banned for 12 months. He then left Pakistan to sign a short-term contract with the Northern California Cricket Association in the United States.

Early and personal life

He was born to Mohammad Akmal Siddique, "a very senior administrator in Pakistan cricket", in a family of eight children, with seven sons who all played cricket at some point but many went to business, and one daughter. He is the youngest brother of Adnan Akmal and Kamran Akmal who are also cricketers, both wicket-keepers. He is also the cousin of Pakistani batsman Babar Azam. In 2014 he married Noor Amna, the daughter of Pakistan leg-spinner Abdul Qadir.

Early career and domestic career

Akmal represented Pakistan in the 2008 U/19 Cricket World Cup in Malaysia. After his success at the U-19 level he earned himself a first-class contract and played the 2007–08 season of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, representing the Sui Northern Gas team. He is an aggressive style cricketer. In only his sixth first-class match he scored 248 off just 225 deliveries, including four sixes. He followed that up with an unbeaten 186 in his 8th first-class match, off just 170 balls. He fared less well in his second season of first-class cricket, with a string of low scores batting at number 3. He found form in the final few matches of the 2008/09 season and then in the RBS T20 tournament which led to him getting selected to play for Pakistan A side on their tour to Australia A. Akmal came to prominence during the Australia A tour in June/July 2009. In the two unofficial Test matches he recorded scores of 54, 100*, 130, 0. In the unofficial ODI series that followed, Akmal continued his fine form with a century in the opening ODI encounter off just 68 deliveries. These performances made him gather considerable praise from the media who were there to witness him and calls began to grow about his inclusion in the ODI series for the main Pakistan side against Sri Lanka. Later that year, Akmal made his Test, ODI, and T20I debut. He played for Sui Northern Gas in the Quaid-e-Azam trophy until 2016–17, during which time Sui Northern Gas won three times (2007-08, 2014-15, 2015-16). However, he was briefly dropped from the first-class side for the 2012 President's Trophy. Akmal played for United Bank Limited in 2017–18, and for Habib Bank Limited in 2018-19 and won the 2018–19 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy with Habib Bank Limited. Akmal played for the Lahore Lions in the National T20 Cup until 2015–16, during which time Lahore Lions won the tournament three times (2010-11, 2012-13, 2013-14). Akmal played for Balochistan in the 2016 Pakistan Cup. He captained Punjab in the 2017 Pakistan Cup, with Punjab finishing 4th out of 5th. In April 2018, he was named in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's squad for the 2018 Pakistan Cup. He was the leading run-scorer for Habib Bank Limited in the 2018–19 Quaid-e-Azam One Day Cup, with 410 runs in ten matches. In March 2019, he was named in Baluchistan's squad for the 2019 Pakistan Cup. In the opening match of the tournament, he scored 136 not out, his highest total in List A cricket. He was the leading run-scorer in the tournament, with 342 runs in five matches. In September 2019, he was named in Central Punjab's squad for the 2019–20 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy tournament. Central Punjab won the tournament and Akmal was named man of the match in the final.

Test career

, in 2009.]] Akmal made his Test debut against New Zealand at Dunedin on 23 November 2009. On the third day of his debut Test, Akmal hit 129 runs from 160 balls becoming only the second Pakistani to score a hundred on debut away from home after Fawad Alam. This feat also made him the first Pakistani batsman to score both his maiden Test and ODI century away from home, following his ODI century against Sri Lanka. The innings was noted as special due to Pakistan's tough position in the match and the hundred partnership which Akmal was involved in alongside his elder brother Kamran. He followed up the century in the first innings with a fifty in the second innings. In only his second Test match he was moved up the order to the crucial spot of number 3, where he struggled initially but managed to counter-attack making 46 runs before he was undone by an inswinger by Daryl Tuffey. In the second innings he was moved down the order to his usual batting spot of number 5 as captain Mohammed Yousuf chose to bat at number 3 himself, and Akmal looked his usual aggressive self throughout his innings of 52 runs which came off only 33 balls. He had his first failure in the first innings of the third Test at Napier where he was caught in the gully for a duck but scored a rearguard 77 in the second, promoting him to the leading run scorer of the series. Akmal finished the tour with 379 runs at an average of 63.16. Akmal played his last Test match in the one-off test against Zimbabwe in 2011. Akmal scored only 15 in that match and was dropped from the Test team thereafter and has yet to be recalled.

T20 franchise career

Pakistan Super League

Akmal was bought by Lahore Qalandars for US$140,000 in 2016 season. He performed well and ended up as the highest runs-scorer in PSL 2016 scoring 335 runs in seven innings with four half-centuries. His team didn't qualify for play-offs and finished last in the group stage. He was retained by Lahore Qalandars for 2nd season. He finished the season with 164 runs from 8 matches with only one fifty. He was again retained by Qalandars for 3rd season. He was eventually dropped by Lahore Qalandars for later part of the tournament for his below par performance and disciplinary issues. Akmal joined Quetta Gladiators for 4th season as a result of a trade. He scored 277 runs in 12 matches in the tournament. Umar was originally part of the Quetta Gladiators squad for the 2020 season, but was removed a day before the tournament after he was suspended by PCB with immediate effect under Article 4.7.1 of its anti-corruption code, disallowing him from taking part in any cricket-related activity under the board's purview, "pending the investigation being carried out by PCB's Anti-Corruption Unit". He was replaced by Anwar Ali.

Other leagues

Akmal played for Wayamba United in the 2012 season of the Sri Lankan Premier League (SLPL). Akmal played two games and scored 13 runs. However, Akmal would not play another season as the SLPL folded that year. Akmal was picked for the Sydney Sixers for the 2012-13 Big Bash but did not play a game. Akmal spent two seasons in the Bangladesh Premier League. He played for Chittagong Vikings in the 2015-16 season. The Chittagong Vikings finished bottom of the group that season. Akmal played for the Rajshahi Kings in the 2016-17 season. He played nine games and scored 106 runs at an average of 13.25. Akmal spent two seasons (2015 and 2016) in the T20 Blast. He played for the Leicestershire Foxes in both seasons. In 2015, he played 4 games and scored 133 runs at an average of 133 with two fifties and a high score of 76*. However, he fared worse in 2016. He played 6 games and scored 134 runs at an average of 33.5 with one 50. In June 2019, he was selected to play for the Winnipeg Hawks franchise team in the 2019 Global T20 Canada tournament.

References

External links

Umar Akmal's profile page on Wisden

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1369547154 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.