Umar Akmal

Umar Akmal (Urdu, ; born 26 May 1990) is a Pakistani cricketer who played for Pakistan national cricket team between 2009 and 2019.

He was banned by the Pakistan Cricket Board for eighteen months for not disclosing offers related to spot fixing until August 2021.

After his success at the U-19 level he earned himself a first-class contract and played the 2007–08 season of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, representing the Sui Northern Gas team.

He is an aggressive style cricketer.

In only his sixth first-class match he scored 248 off just 225 deliveries, including four sixes.

Akmal represented Pakistan in the 2008 U/19 Cricket World Cup in Malaysia.

He found form in the final few matches of the 2008/09 season and then in the RBS T20 tournament which led to him getting selected to play for Pakistan A side on their tour to Australia A.

Akmal made his One Day International (ODI) debut on 1 August 2009 against Sri Lanka, his Twenty20 International (T20I) debut on 12 August 2009 also against Sri Lanka, and his Test debut against New Zealand on 23 November 2009.

He is a right-handed batsman and a part-time spinner.

Like his two brothers, Adnan and Kamran, Umar has kept wicket for the national team in many ODIs.

Akmal came to prominence during the Australia A tour in June/July 2009.

In the two unofficial Test matches he recorded scores of 54, 100*, 130, 0.

In the unofficial ODI series that followed, Akmal continued his fine form with a century in the opening ODI encounter off just 68 deliveries.

These performances made him gather considerable praise from the media who were there to witness him and calls began to grow about his inclusion in the ODI series for the main Pakistan side against Sri Lanka.

Later that year, Akmal made his Test, ODI, and T20I debut.

However, he was briefly dropped from the first-class side for the 2012 President's Trophy.

In 2014 he married Noor Amna, the daughter of Pakistan leg-spinner Abdul Qadir.

Akmal played for the Lahore Lions in the National T20 Cup until 2015–16, during which time Lahore Lions won the tournament three times (2010-11, 2012-13, 2013-14).

He played for Sui Northern Gas in the Quaid-e-Azam trophy until 2016–17, during which time Sui Northern Gas won three times (2007-08, 2014-15, 2015-16).

Akmal played for Balochistan in the 2016 Pakistan Cup.

Domestically, he played for Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited for eleven years, before signing with United Bank Limited in August 2017.

He has also played in many franchise Twenty20 teams around the world.

Akmal played for United Bank Limited in 2017–18, and for Habib Bank Limited in 2018-19 and won the 2018–19 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy with Habib Bank Limited.

He captained Punjab in the 2017 Pakistan Cup, with Punjab finishing 4th out of 5th.

He followed that up with an unbeaten 186 in his 8th first-class match, off just 170 balls.

He fared less well in his second season of first-class cricket, with a string of low scores batting at number 3.

In April 2018, he was named in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's squad for the 2018 Pakistan Cup.

He was the leading run-scorer for Habib Bank Limited in the 2018–19 Quaid-e-Azam One Day Cup, with 410 runs in ten matches.

In March 2019, he was named in Baluchistan's squad for the 2019 Pakistan Cup.

In February 2020, he was suspended by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), after he had breached their Anti-Corruption code.

In April 2020, the PCB banned him from cricket for three years, after he pled guilty to failing to report corrupt approaches.

The following month, he lodged an appeal against his ban.

In July 2020, Akmal's ban was reduced to one-and-a-half years, with his suspension running from February 2020 to August 2021.

In August 2020, the PCB appealed the ban reduction to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and Akmal appealed to the CAS to have his ban overturned.

In February 2021, the CAS reduced the ban to 12 months and imposed a PKR 4.25 million (27,000 USD) fine on Akmal.

In July 2021, Akmal apologised for not reporting corrupt approaches last year, which led to him being banned for 12 months.

He then left Pakistan to sign a short-term contract with the Northern California Cricket Association in the United States.

He was born to Mohammad Akmal Siddique, "a very senior administrator in Pakistan cricket", in a family of eight children, with seven sons who all played cricket at some point but many went to business, and one daughter.

He is the youngest brother of Adnan Akmal and Kamran Akmal who are also cricketers, both wicket-keepers.

He is also the cousin of Pakistani batsman Babar Azam.