KARACHI: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and Test cricketer Umar Akmal filed separate appeals at the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in Switzerland and separate hearings, for both, would be held on December 1, 2020, it was learnt on Thursday.

As per the information available to this correspondent, the cases — CAS 2020/A/7358 Pakistan Cricket Board vs Umar Akmal and CAS 2020/A/7366 Umar Akmal vs Pakistan Cricket Board and Independent Adjudicator on the appeals and Anti-Corruption Tribunal — would he heard via video link.

Earlier, the proceedings were to be held in person (in Switzerland). However, on PCB’s request, the hearings have been allowed online.

The PCB also asked the CAS to join both the pleas but the request was not entertained.

The 30-year-old Umar was slapped with a three-year suspension by PCB’s Disciplinary Panel in April for not reporting approaches from the bookies prior to the fifth season of the Pakistan Super League. Umar filed an appeal against the sanction next month and in July. However, the overall sanction was reduced to 18 months by an independent adjudicator, retired Supreme Court judge Faqir Mohammad Khokhar.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) expressed dissatisfaction over the disciplinary panel’s decision to reduce the ban and formally moved to the Court of Arbitration for Sports.

Umar, too, reached out to the CAS with his separate plea to overturn the penalty been imposed on him.

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2020