PCB Chairman Najam Sethi highlights the importance of discipline

Umar Akmal has faced the wrath of disciplinary issues on a number of times. In Pakistan’s tour of England back in 2016, he wasn’t included in the 35-man squad and Inzamam-ul-Haq cited indiscipline as a reason behind his exclusion. In the same year, he was banned for a T20I versus New Zealand. He was also suspended from three international or domestic matches last year.

The ban was imposed by Najam Sethi, the Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on account of violating laws of his central contract. Recently, Sethi put forth the importance of discipline and unity. He also remarked that the culture in Pakistan, which was an undesired one a few years ago, has altered drastically and the current bunch is a much more united one.

Discipline is also important

“People like Umar Akmal have to understand that discipline is important. As you know, in Pakistan we put a lot of emphasis on the ideas of unity, faith and discipline. We had faith, but unity was missing in the past where we had groupings in the team with coaches on one side and the captain on the other and so on, and so forth. All that has gone now.”

“We are now a united team, but discipline is also important, both in terms of acquiring physical fitness as well as in terms of following instructions and strategies. So, the message, in this case, is of zero tolerance and nothing else,” Sethi was quoted as saying by PakPassion.

Akmal played for the Lahore Qalandars in this year’s PSL and couldn’t make any impact with the willow. Brendon McCullum, the skipper of the team, also came down hard on the wicketkeeper-batsman. The 28-year old’s last international appearance was one and half years ago in an ODI versus Australia at the iconic Adelaide Oval.

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