Coach Mickey Arthur rubbishes Umar Akmal’s allegations

Pakistan head coach Mickey Arthur has brushed aside the allegations levelled against him by Umar Akmal. The middle order batsman in his recent press conference had accused Arthur of mistreating him, abusing him and stopping him from training at the National Cricket Academy (NCA).

Following the statement from Akmal, the coach clearly denied abusing him but he admitted of having scolded him at NCA the. The 27-year-old has been out of the Pakistan national team for a while now and was sent back from England just ahead of the Champions Trophy for being unfit as he failed two fitness tests.

“Umar Akmal wanted to use Grant Flower’s services for batting. I told him he must first earn the right to go and play club cricket since he is not under PCB contract anymore,” Arthur said in an interview after the press conference. “He needs to prove himself before he uses our support staff,” he added.

The former South African cricketer also cleared that he didn’t stop Akmal from using NCA but stopped from using the services of the coaching staff.

“I never stopped him from using the academy, told him not to use services of our support staff until he earns the right,” Arthur revealed. “Umar Akmal cannot expect that the support staff, who are for contracted players, are at his beck and call. No body there should be taken for granted,” he added

Umar Akmal and controversies

This is not the first time that Umar has created a controversy. In 2014, he was detained at a local station in Lahore following a spat with a traffic warden over breaking a traffic signal.

He was also in the news after a row with security personnel in a Faisalabad theatre auditorium and after being allegedly arrested from an event in Hyderabad. Akmal needs to concentrate on his game now in order to get back into the national side the chances of which for now are looking bleak.