Umar Akmal blames mental strain and duress for Arthur outburst

Pakistan middle order batsman Umar Akmal has always found himself in trouble. Recently, he had accused head coach Mickey Arthur to have verbally abused him when the batsman attempted to practice in the National Cricket Academy last month. Akmal spoke to the media about the ‘incident’ which did not go down well with the PCB.

Akmal at loggerheads with head coach

PCB had asked Akmal to reply to their show-cause letter but the 27-year old was relentless and advised the Board to appoint an independent committee to probe the incident. He even said that if he is proved guilty, he is ready to face any punishment. Najam Sethi, the current PCB chief, then appointed a committee to find out the exact happening of the incident but after probing the matter they were not satisfied with Akmal’s statement and sent another show-cause notice to the right-hander.

The hard-hitting batsman then took a U-turn and sought an apology from the board for approaching the media before taking the PCB’s permission. He blamed the entire saga as an outburst of mental strain and duress. Akmal also promised that he will not repeat such an incident in future.

“Umar has basically admitted that he should not have gone to the media and made accusations against Arthur and he has asked the PCB to accept his explanation and assured them he will not repeat his mistake again,” one source said.

Akmal following father-in-law’s suggestion

It is been said that Akmal had approached his father-in-law – Abdul Qadir, who had advised the batsman to not be at loggerheads with the Board and the coach.

Mickey Arthur has made it clear that only fit cricketers will be in the scheme of things going forward. This was a reason why Umar Akmal was sent home from England after failing a fitness test just days before the commencement of the ICC Champions Trophy.