LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Thursday served a show cause notice to troubled batsman Umar Akmal for holding a press conference and levelling allegations against head coach Mickey Arthur.

“The PCB has issued a show-cause notice to Umar Akmal on breaching code of conduct. The middle-order batsman has seven days to file a reply,” a short press release issued by the PCB stated.

On Wednesday, Umar had alleged that Arthur abused and misbehaved with him when he went to the National Cricket Academy to do some training on his own. The Pakistan discard had further alleged that Arthur abused and misbehaved in the presence of chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq and NCA bowling coach Mushtaq Ahmed.

Though Umar is not a central-contracted player, his trial will run under the Code of Conducts of the central contract.

A PCB official said at least Umar would have to submit answers for breaching two clauses of the central contract, firstly for holding a press conference without the PCB’s permission and then maligning team officials in the public.

The PCB official said that a player is bound to obey the Code of Conducts of the central contract, for one year, even after being excluded. As Umar was on the central contract till July 31 this year he is bound to obey all the Code of Conducts until July 31, 2018.

However, the PCB neither issued any such notice to Arthur nor it called him to explain his position. No disciplinary committee is formed to hear the point of view of both Umar and Arthur.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2017