Karachi: Pakistan batsman Umar Akmal has show-caused by the PCB’ anti-corruption (ACU) unit for failing to report a corrupt approach before the 2015 World Cup match against arch rivals India. The ACU has asked the cricketer to appear before the tribunal, June 27.
The notice was served after the enigmatic batsman spoke about several instances, where he was approached to spot-fix matches, under-perform or sit out.
In an interview to the ‘Samaa’ news channel, Akmal, 28, said he despised fixing and could never even think about letting his country down. He talked in detail about the approaches.
Some of the callers have also threatened me with dire consequences when I have refused the offers. But I have ignore those and carried on with life
Umar Akmal
Akmal disclosed how the Pakistan team’s liaison officer in the Hong Kong Sixes had approached him at 3am in the morning in his hotel room a day before the tournament started to make an offer which he promptly turned down. He also claimed a bookmaker had called him up and offered him around USD 1,50,000 to 200,000 for leaving two balls at a particular time in the 2015 World Cup game against India at Adelaide. “Whenever I have got these calls in which offers are made to me I have reported them to the management or security officials,” he stated during the interview.
A reliable source in the PCB, however said that Umar had been called to appear before the ACU to clarify his position since Pakistan players were not supposed to speak publicly on sensitive issues without first getting clearance from the board.
“Secondly the ACU and PCB is aware of some approaches mentioned by Umar but unaware of others. They want clarity on that,” added the source, Monday.