The Pakistan Cricket Board will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against the reduced ban for batsman Umar Akmal.
Akmal, 30, was banned for three years in April for failing to report approaches to engage in corrupt practices ahead of this year’s Pakistan Super League – but an independent adjudicator cut that suspension to 18 months in July.
A PCB statement read: “The PCB takes matters relating to anti-corruption very seriously and firmly maintains a zero-tolerance approach.
“The PCB believes a senior cricketer like Umar Akmal was aware of the consequences when, after having attended a number of anti-corruption lectures at domestic and international level, having witnessed the consequences of indulging in corrupt conduct, still failed to report the approaches to the relevant authorities.
“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.”
Akmal has played 221 times for Pakistan across all three formats, making 16 Test appearances, figuring in 121 one-day internationals and featuring in 84 T20 internationals.
(Article originally appeared on Sky sports)
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