LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) condemned “the reckless statements made by batsman Umar Akmal with regards to his omission from the ICC Champions Trophy squad, in a statement released here on Friday. “While making frivolous allegations against the national team management, Akmal has made a bogus attempt to deviate attention from his own failings. Akmal was given as many as seven chances to improve his fitness and match the standards of his teammates,” the PCB said. Defending head coach Mickey Arthur, the PCB claimed that “Arthur had placed Umar in his white ball format plans” and given him “repeated chances for redemption,” but he failed to achieve the required fitness level. Responding to Akmal’s allegation that the fitness test which led to him being declared unfit was deliberately conducted for that purpose, the PCB clarified that “the team trainer conducts fitness tests of squad members before each international assignment and the tests before the Champions Trophy were conducted as a continuation of the policy.” The PCB hoped Akmal refrains from any further statements before responding to the show-cause notice issued to him on Thursday. Akmal, on Wednesday, had levelled serious allegations – of harsh behaviour and verbal abuse – against Arthur. He had then taken to Twitter to further allege that he had been deliberately kept out of the national team through a ‘scheme’ after Arthur refuted his claims. He had also offered to apologise if chief selector Inzamamul Haq and Mushtaq Ahmed denied his allegations against Arthur on oath, which they later did. Published in Daily Times, August 19th 2017.