It is only natural that much kept happening elsewhere while the world at large continued to focus on the football World Cup in Russia. Pakistan, for instance, got a thrashing in hockey in the latest edition of the Champions Trophy, and gave a thrashing to the hapless Zimbabweans in cricket; both results going pretty much as expected. But one thing that happened rather unexpectedly deserves a bit of space, even though it took place about a month ago. It relates to the nation’s favourite son, Umar Akmal (read ‘favourite’ with or without inverted commas at your own free will).

In an interview with a private television channel, Umar, the ever erroneous, made a last-ditch effort to somehow bring the spotlight back on him by recalling approaches allegedly made to him by match-fixers during the 2015 Cricket World Cup that was held in Australia. For all practical purposes, it indicated the man’s amazingly consistent conflict with sanity.

With match-fixing a major issue alongside ball tampering that the International Cricket Council (ICC) is trying to manage, the attempt by Umar to touch the raw nerve to get some attention was as sure-shot as it was foolhardy. He did get the attention, but probably not of the kind that he had in mind. The ICC immediately asked for an urgent meeting with him, while the local media and the authorities ignored him beyond reporting and acknowledging his comments. He got the spotlight he wanted, but got it at the wrong spot for he would struggle to rationalise his choice of not reporting it to the team management when the offer was supposedly made.

Among the several families that have represented Pakistan in cricket, the Akmals stand out for the contrasting approaches of their two main characters

It is surprising that while the ICC reacted immediately and called for a meeting with the man, there has hardly been any progress on that front. There has been complete and rather inexplicable silence on the issue. Apparently, the world body also decided to ignore Umar and his antics, but once it decided to react to the statement, it became a logical and procedural requirement to provide us — the masses — with some sort of closure. That wait continues.

A look at Umar’s performance at the said World Cup makes for interesting reading. Against India, he scored a perfect zero while facing four balls. Against the West Indies, it was 59 off 71 balls, followed by 33/42 against Zimbabwe, 19/13 against the UAE, 13/20 versus South Africa, 20/29 versus Ireland, and 20 off 25 balls against Australia in the quarter-finals. In all, he scored 164 runs in 204 balls at a strike rate of 80 runs per hundred balls, which is nothing too far from his career strike rate of 85.94 across 105 innings.

Zooming in a little more, Umar was allegedly offered $200,000 for “leaving two balls alone” in the encounter against India at the Adelaide Oval. In that particular match, he played four balls. He left one alone; defended two with the bat, and got out on the fourth, given by the third umpire as caught behind even though the ‘snicko’ and the field umpire said there was nothing. In terms of intention, it was practically a ball left alone. Was he trying to leave the second ball to secure the promised payment — the allegedly promised payment, one might say?

The ICC or the PCB is not asking questions. He did appear before the PCB Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU), but all that came out of it was an announcement that “details would be released shortly.” Away from such official lethargy, it is fair to say that with the history of lunacy Umar has cobbled up over the years, the allegation was just another lame publicity stunt.

He could have learned from Kamran, the senior Akmal, who provides the contrast in this case study. Not many have shown the perseverance, the courage and character displayed by Kamran after having been dumped with due lack of ceremony. The team moved on, and subsequently had a wicketkeeper who also happens to be the captain. That clearly meant he had no chance of getting in. And, yet, he never lost hope and kept doing everything to push his case. He piled up a mountain of runs that was high enough to take him on the tour to the West Indies purely as a batsman.

He was dumped again alright, but then his performances during the Pakistan Super League (PSL) brought him in the reckoning as the media started questioning the team management, selectors and the board about what they were going to do with another impressive pile of runs. Those who were supposed to answer found themselves on the back foot, coming up with statements that didn’t carry much weight, logically speaking.

In the end, it was sheer justice that Kamran himself released all the pressure he had worked so hard to build on all concerned. It happened in the PSL final where he dropped a catch which was not his to begin with, and would have been a dolly for the fielder who was running in. He dropped it so badly — and at such a crucial juncture of the game — that every bit of debate about his future chances came to an abrupt halt there and then.

But, critically in the context of this case study, Kamran cannot be faulted in terms of his approach to manage a comeback. He let his bat do the talking while keeping his words to himself. Umar did everything to the contrary.

humair.ishtiaq@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, EOS, July 29th, 2018