The Pakistan Super League draft is just around the corner ahead of the fourth season of the star-studded mega tournament.
The committee constituting national selection committee members Wasim Haider and Wajahat Ullah Wasti and PSL Head of Players Execution Imran Ahmed Khan has finalized the list of players for the draft in Lahore on Thursday. The list, however, does not carry the name of Umar Akmal.
A local media publication reported that Lahore Qalandars are insisting that the committee place his name in the Gold category, while other franchises want the 28-year-old foul-mouthed yet flamboyant batsman to be placed in the same old category.
Akmal who last played for Lahore Qalandars in the Platinum category was left out of the list due to an ongoing match-fixing probe against him.
Akmal came under the ICC’s radar when he, during a televised interview in June, claimed to have been approached by the bookies to fix the match during the World Cup 2015.
“I was offered $200,000 to miss two deliveries during a World Cup match, he said, adding that, “In 2015 World Cup and all matches against India, bookies have offered me money to miss those games.”
“I refused the offers and told them that I don’t want this kind of money so do not talk to me on this topic,” Akmal further claimed.
Only Umar knows if the claims were true or just quoted to spice up the interview, as he has a streak of attention-seeking which often puts him into controversies.
Experts believe that the ICC’s anti-corruption unit’s comment just two days ago, which hinted at probing Akmal’s claim, could be the reason for his exclusion from the draft list.
Whether or not Umar finds his place in the PSL draft, it’s still a long shot to take, but one thing is sure. If he wants to return to the international circuit, he sure needs to mend his ways and his batting too.
Here is the category-wise list of the players finalized for the draft.
Platinum Category | |||
---|---|---|---|
Sarfraz Ahmed | Fakhar Zaman | Misbah ul Haq | Wahab Riaz |
Shadab Khan | Faheem Ashraf | Shahid Afridi | Kamran Akmal |
Muhammad Amir | Babar Azam | Shoaib Malik | Mohammad Hafeez |
Mohammad Irfan | Hasan Ali |
Diamond Category | |||
---|---|---|---|
Yasir Shah | Mohammad Sami | Sohail Tanvir | Mohammad Nawaz |
Rumman Raees | Imad Wasim | Junaid Khan | Usman Shimwari |
Asif Ali |
Gold Category | |||
---|---|---|---|
Bilal Asif | Umar Amin, | Hasan Khan | Bilawal Bhatti |
Sohail Khan | Rahat Ali | Anwar Ali | Asad Shafiq |
Zulfiqar Babar | Umar Gul | Mohammad Asghar | Haris Sohail |
Ahmed Shehzad | Sohaib Maqsood | Mohammad Abbas | Shan Masood |
Hussain Talat | Mohammad Rizwan | Khurram Manzoor | Mukhtar Ahmed |
Aamir Yamin | Shaheen Afridi | Raza Hasan |
Silver Category | |||
---|---|---|---|
Sohail Akhtar | Usama Mir | Saif Badar | Khushdil Shah |
Agha Salman | Tabish Khan | Usman Siddiq | Ramiz Raja (JR.) |
Gulraiz Sadaf | Mohammad Irfan (JR.) | Umaid Asif | Saad Ali |
Salman Irshad | Saifullah Bangash | Hammad Azam | Mir Hamza |
Imran Khan (JR.) | Danish Aziz | Saad Nasim | Saud Shakeel |
Ahmed Butt | Kashif Bhatti | Taimor Sultan | Faraza Ahmed Khan |
Waqas Maqsood | Mohammad Irfan Khan | Khalid Usman |
Emerging Category | |||
---|---|---|---|
Muhammad Azam Khan | Ibtisam Shaikh | Hasan Mohsin | Mushtaq Ahmed Kalhoro |
Muhammad Junaid | Mohammad Arif | Mohammad Taha | Mohammad Hussain |
Shameen Gul | Abdullah Shafiq | Rohail Nazir | Ghulam Mudasir |
Featured image via Express Tribune
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