Alleged Coach Arthur for abusing him. Arthur refuted
LAHORE 16 Aug 17 (TNS): Controversy prone middle order Batsman Umar Akmal on Wednesday claimed that coach Mickey Arthur had verbally abused him in front of Chief Selector Inzamam-ul-Haq. He further went on by saying that Arthur is also abusive towards other players.
A serious allegation that Mickey Arthur has refuted in a quick response by saying that Akmal was not telling the truth.
Akmal in a press conference here also said that senior players did not stop the coach when he was being verbally abused and added that the coach had told him to play club-level cricket instead of coming to the academy.
Akmal further claimed that he was dropped from the team after an unjustified warning.
He also said that he wants to inform the Pakistan Cricket Board regarding the behavior of the coaching staff.
On the other hand Coach Mickey Arthur was quick enough to respond what Umer Akmal has leveled on him. In an interview in Karachi Arthur denied that he abused the middle order batsman, but confirmed that he scolded him for using facilities at NCA.
However, Arthur said that he didn’t stop Akmal from using NCA but only stopped him from using services of 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.
“He needs to prove himself before he uses our support staff,” he added.
“Umar Akmal wanted to use Grant Folower’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.
“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 said.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Cricket Board said it has decided a show-cause notice to Akmal.
It is pertinent to mention that Umar Akmal was dropped from the Pakistan squad for the Champions Trophy in Birmingham in May this year, after the batsman failed two consecutive fitness tests in two months.
The batsman’s failure in fitness tests prompted selectors to bring in Haris Sohail in place of Akmal, asking the cricketer to return home to work on his fitness.
This is not the first time Akmal has become a center of controversy.
In 2014, Akmal was detained at a local station in Lahore following spat with a traffic warden over breaking a traffic signal. The middle-order batsman also made headlines after a row with security personnel in a Faisalabad theatre auditorium and after being allegedly arrested from an event in Hyderabad.
