Is Umar Akmal playing with his international career?

By Farhan Nisar

LAHORE, Pakistan (TheSportsNEXT) November 15, 2012: Team management of the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) decided to leave out one of the most talented middle-order batsman in the country, Umar Akmal, in the President’s Trophy cricket match against the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on Wednesday.

Umar Akmal got infuriated by the move and not only left the ground with bitter taste in the mouth but also called a press conference against team managed especially coach Basit Ali.

All of the major newspapers in Pakistan published Umar Akmal’s press conference by adding more drama and agony into the story but nobody, including Umar Akmal, never tried to find out the actual reasons for his ouster.

Pakistani newspapers continued following the long-adopted policy of sensationalizing the popular story but none of them dug into the reasons and rationale behind leaving out such a talented player from a domestic cricket match.

A newspaper went on to the extent of false reporting that it quoted Basit Ali as suggesting Umar Akmal to play club cricket which was far from reality.

Such an unprofessional attitude of Pakistani media has brought a bad name for all the sports journalists in the global media as mostly none of the reporters investigate the real story rather they keep on following the popular trend and withstand the false story just in a bid to steal the limelight.

I spoke to former Pakistani batsman Basit Ali, who is now coach of the SNGPL cricket team, this morning at Gaddafi Stadium and he categorically denied the reported stories across the mainstream media which cited personal reasons for dropping Umar Akmal.

Basit Ali said that dropping Umar Akmal was not his personal decision rather it was decided by a five-man team management which included captain Misbah ul Haq and Mohammad Hafeez to keep him out of the team.

Some so-called sports website even reported that Mohammad Hafeez wanted Umar Akmal out of the team due to some personal grudges against him but such unreliable sources should be aware of the fact that Mohammad Hafeez is not the captain of SNGPL. Moreover, four seasons ago when Lahore’s cricket team didn’t want to take a risk by playing a young and inexperienced Umar Akmal in the First-Class Cricket, it was Mohammad Hafeez who took the challenge by letting him play in the SNGPL team. Umar Akmal responded brilliantly and came up with massive tallies of runs which paved the way for his inclusion in the Pakistan A team for the tour to Australia. Later, Umar Akmal got himself the chance to represent the national cricket team only after scoring two centuries for Pakistan A against Australia A and guess what Mohammad Hafeez was his captain during that tour.

Almost all the dailies claimed that Umar Akmal was left out of the side purely on the basis of poor form, which is once again a false claim.

How come form of a batsman deteriorates without even playing a match? If we recall the recent matches which Umar Akmal played for Pakistan we can clearly figure him out as one of the top performers for the Men in Green at the ICC World Twenty20 2012 which was held in Sri Lanka. Umar Akmal helped Pakistan win an impossible Super Eights match against South Africa and he was the last man standing in the Semi-Final match against Sri Lanka when all the other batsmen couldn’t take the responsibility.

During the two exhibition matches played between Pakistan Stars XI and International World XI at National Stadium in Karachi last month, Umar Akmal was amongst runs while he was once again playing match-winning innings when he toured Hong Kong for the Hong Kong Super Sixes tournament which Pakistan lost in the final.

During the course of the ongoing President’s Trophy, Umar Akmal has played one match against National Bank of Pakistan and even in that match he scored 40 runs in first innings and 48 runs in the second, therefore it is far from reality to suppose Umar Akmal is a victim of bad patch or poor batting form.

According to Basit Ali, the flamboyant middle-order batsman was left out of the side for the game against Pakistan International Airlines purely on the basis of team discipline violation.

“We dearly needed Umar Akmal for our match against Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited which was played from November 2-5. I kept calling Umar Akmal but he refrained from picking up any of my calls. Later he told team manager that he will let him know about his availability for the match in the night but he never contacted anyone. Now, the team doesn’t need his services therefore he has been left out of the playing eleven” Basit Ali told this scribe.

Basit Ali, who is also a great fan of Umar Akmal’s abilities as batsman and has been advocating his inclusion in the national team for a long time, made it clear that he never compromises on discipline.

Umar Akmal did arrive at the stadium on the morning of that match and asked Misbah ul Haq whether his name was in the playing eleven. Misbah told him that the team which played the last match will compete in this one. The reply infuriated Umar Akmal and he carried his cricket kit and went back home.

Umar Akmal is of the view that he opted out of the previous matches because he was busy in wedding preparations for his brother Adnan Akmal and when he wanted to be part of the squad, team management struck his name out of the playing eleven.

Umar Akmal’s elder brother, Kamran was also busy in the Mehndi arrangements of Adnan Akmal scheduled for November 6, but he still played the match played from November 2-5.

Basit Ali also raised the very question that when Kamran Akmal, who was also busy in the marriage arrangements, can play the match just a day before the ceremony, then why Umar Akmal can’t, especially when he was given the guarantee that he would be sent home through a flight right after the match?

There is no doubt that Umar Akmal is Pakistan’s best young batting talent and no other young batsman can match his exuberance and quality but despite of possessing such a high class it seems that Umar Akmal is not serious with his cricket career. While all the other batsmen are concentrating hard on improving their batting skill and with it their chances to grab a permanent position in the Pakistan cricket team, Umar Akmal is wasting his time in pinpointing other’s shortcomings and indulging himself into unnecessary controversies.

Umar Akmal, who began his Test career with a century in his first innings, was probably told right from the start that he is the next big thing in Pakistan cricket and is the future leader of the national cricket team. This prophecy by a former opening batsman and currently a television commentator has also tormented Umar Akmal’s career who considers himself as the biggest cricket in the country and has already started dreaming about captaincy.

However, captaincy is a thing that doesn’t come easy for anyone. Umar Akmal is not even part of Pakistan’s Test team where young batsmen like Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq have consistently performed to cement their places in the final eleven while Umar Akmal is not even participating in the all-important President’s Trophy which was a great chance for the middle-order batsman to prove his mettle against the best bowling talent in the country and pave the way for his return into the Test side.

It seems Umar Akmal has dropped the exclusive chance of winning back his Test spot by indulging himself into marriage arrangements of his brother.

Looking at what this brilliant cricketer is doing these days, one can easily comment that Umar Akmal is digging his own grave.