LAHORE; The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has turned down the request from disgraced international Umar Akmal to pay the fine of Rs 4.25million in instalments.

The fine was imposed by the Court of Arbitration in Sports, in which both the PCB and Umar had filed the appeals against each other in a case of spot fixing reported in the fifth edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) last year.

According to media reports, Umar has appealed for the instalments as he is going through a financial crisis. He wanted the PCB to start his rehabilitation programme at the earliest. But the PCB rejected the appeal of Umar.

According to the rules of the PCB, any cricketer punished in spot and match-fixing cases has to go through a rehabilitation programme after completing the punishment to be cleared to play cricket again. Umar has violated the article 2.4.4 of the PCB Anti-Corruption Code and a fine of Rs 4.25 million was imposed on him.

Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2021