‘Thought he was arrogant, I had to use stronger words’ – Mickey Arthur on his fallout with Umar Akmal

Mickey Arthur, the former head coach of the Pakistan team, recalled an ugly incident with the much talked-about Umar Akmal. Back in 2017, Akmal had opted out of the National Cricket Academy’s (NCA) high-performance camp due to a knee injury. But he said that he got an unwelcoming treatment after he returned before the five weeks he had excused himself for.

Thereafter, Akmal lashed out at Arthur, saying that the South African used abusive words against him. Talking about the incident, the 51-year-old stated that he found Akmal ‘arrogant’ after he approached then batting coach Grant Flower ‘for a hit’. Arthur stated that he had to use some strong words in order to shock Akmal and lead him to the right path.

I told him that you need to sort things out: Mickey Arthur

“I thought he was arrogant during the incident at the high-performance centre. He went up to our fitness trainer Grant Luden and asked him for his fitness programme, despite the fact that he was given six to seven of those in the past.

He then walks up to Grant Flower and asks ‘can I have a hit?’ which I thought was unbelievably arrogant,” Arthur was quoted as saying on BSports Pakistan’s official YouTube channel.

“That’s is where I told him lets go and have a chat. I told him that you need to sort things out first which includes improving fitness and scoring runs before coming to the academy to use our facilities. I might have used couple of stronger words as well but that was to shock him into some sort of action,” he stated.

Recently, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) handed the 29-year-old Akmal a three-year ban. The same was because he failed to report corrupt approaches during the Pakistan Super League (PSL). Umar made his national comeback twice in 2019 before being slapped with suspension. He was also barred from playing for the Quetta Gladiators in the 2020 PSL.

Arthur didn’t mince any words in saying that picking Akmal in the future would be a horrendous decision on Pakistan’s part.  “If Pakistan picked him again, I would be very surprised and it would be a very poor decision,” Arthur, who’s currently the Sri Lankan head coach, added.