Watch: Umar Akmal justifies his lack of fitness

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) introduced a new fitness test as mandatory criteria to pass for a player to be considered for national selection. It was chairman of selectors Inzamam-ul-Haq who suggested the reform and that saw two seasoned players Umar Akmal and Sohail Tanvir fail the test and were thus excluded from the team for the tour of West Indies.

The board had organized a week-long training camp at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) for the players ahead of the selection. Though Umar couldn’t make the cut his elder brother Kamran who is almost 10 years elder to him passed the test, was deemed fitter than his younger sibling and also selected in the Pakistan team for the West Indies tour.

Earlier in 2016, the PCB had set up a similar fitness camp to improve the level of physical fitness of its players, special trainers from the Pakistan army were deployed to train the team and after a test it emerged that Test skipper Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan aged 42 and 40 respectively were the fittest players in the team.

Now that Umar has been termed unfit for the highest level it has been scrutinized by the media and he called on TV by a Pakistani news channel to explain his stance on the case. While talking there the 26-year-old said that he takes utmost care of his diet but his body genetically tends to gain weight. He went on to explain his diet and said that he hadn’t had any grain for the last couple of days and was rather just eating grilled barbecued food.

He also emphasized that he is consuming a lot of water and that makes him think that his body is gaining weight because of water. Umar said that it is a thing in his family and has happened with all his 6 brothers except Adnan Akmal who is also a Pakistan cricketer.

Watch the video here as Umar Akmal tries to defend his lack of fitness without really caring about facts:

Umar Akmal explaining his fitness problems ?

“Main aur Kami bhai ki physique aisi hai k hum pani bhi pii lain tu wo bhi hamain lagta hai” pic.twitter.com/6F0YiITHB7

— Ammar Ashraf (@AmmarAshraf) March 15, 2017