With Umar Akmal’s sensational allegations against head coach Mickey Arthur leading to the former’s fallout with the national team, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), on Sunday (August 27), formed a three-member committee to probe into the whole matter. After Akmal’s heated press conference in Lahore where he had stated that Arthur abused him, the PCB had made it clear that its support is behind Arthur by issuing a show cause notice to the player in addition to slamming him for the ‘baseless allegations’. However, the decision to form the committee is suggesting otherwise.
PCB, in its statement, had strongly indicated that Arthur had the full backing of the board, refuting any speculation of a committee formed to probe into the matter.
“The PCB strongly condemns reckless statements made by batsman Umar Akmal with regards to his omission from the ICC Champions Trophy squad,” it read.
“Head coach Mickey Arthur had placed Umar in his white ball format plans and gave him repeated chances for redemption. Unfortunately, though, the batsman remained incapable of reaching the required fitness level. The PCB awaits his response to the show cause notice issued to him yesterday and hopes that, in the meantime, the batsman will refrain from making baseless allegations,” it further added.
The committee comprises three members: director of cricket operations Haroon Rasheed, director of media Amjad Bhatti and the PCB’s general manager legal Salman Naseer. The committee would have reached a conclusion sooner than expected had with Arthur and Inzamam-ul-Haq, not in the country, the three-member panel is likely to face some logistic difficulties.
According to Akmal, Inzamam-ul-Haq, the former skipper and chief selector, was present at the scene when Arthur used abusive language for the batsman. Akmal had also claimed that Mushtaq Ahmed, the head coach of the National Cricket Academy (NCA), was also present at the scene. However, Ahmed has denied those allegations and insisted that “slang words” were used by Arthur but were not directed at Akmal.
Meanwhile, former coach Waqar Younis has said that the matter could have been solved by mutual understanding.
“The current issue between Umar and Arthur should be sorted out with mutual understanding, and there is no need for any inquiry,” he said. “Someone needs to sit Umar down and explain to him that when a teacher or any other senior figure ticks you off, it isn’t such a big deal. I don’t think Mickey Arthur would have gone overboard when chastising Umar. It’s pure frustration on his part because he isn’t part of the team.
“Every coach could be a bit harsh with the players but only for their own benefit,” he added.