Umar Akmal leaves National T20 Cup to play league cricket in California

Pakistani cricketer, Umar Akmal has left Pakistan’s National T20 Cup 2021 to play league cricket in the United States.

According to the reports, he has signed a contract with Northern Cricket California Association. He scored 0, 14, 7, 16 and 29 for Central Punjab in National T20 Cup before deciding to go to California.

His family member said, “There are a few others who were banned with bigger charges but given unprecedented support to make a comeback. The system was never fair to Umar. There were blatant compromises made to select a few players with poor fitness, but the benchmark was made tighter for him to make sure keep him out,”

Umar Akmal has been at the centre of controversy many times in his career but he got his 18-month ban for breaching PCB’s anti-corruption, however, the suspension was reduced later to 6 months following the verdict of the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS).

The PCB charged Umar for 2 breaches of Article 2.4.4 of its Anti-Corruption Code in 2 unrelated incidents in February 2021 ahead of the PSL.

He is the cousin of current Pakistan cricket team captain Babar Azam. He last played for Pakistan in October, has featured in 16 Tests, 121 ODIs and 84 T20s, scoring 1,003, 3,194 and 1,690 runs respectively.