Pakistan Cricket Board to appeal with CAS against reduction in Akmal ban

The Pakistan Cricket Board will file an appeal in the Court of Arbitration for Sports against the reduction of Umar Akmal’s ban for breaching its anti-corruption code.

An independent adjudicator had reduced Akmal’s ban from 36 months to 18 months after the Pakistan middle-order batsman appealed the suspension's length.

“The PCB doesn’t take any pride in seeing a cricketer of Umar’s stature being banned for corruption, but as a credible and respectable institution, we need to send out a loud and clear message to all our stakeholders that there will be no sympathy whatsoever for anyone who breaches the regulations,” the PCB said in a statement on Monday.

Akmal was banned for violating two anti-corruption codes just before the start of the Pakistan Super League Twenty20 season earlier this year.

The cricket board said Akmal failed to report the approaches to the relevant authorities despite attending “a number of anti-corruption lectures at domestic and international level.”

The PCB had already submitted a draft proposal to the relevant Pakistan government authorities around legislation on criminalizing corruption in sports.

“In the draft paper, the PCB has proposed severe sanctions pertaining to corruption, illegal manipulation, betting, match and spot-fixing as well as aiding and abetting such conduct; and proposes the penalties to be imposed on individuals found guilty of engaging in such offences,” the organization said.