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Kamran Akmal accused the PCB of creating a diversion with its disciplinary inquiry after the disastrous England Test series.
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Akmal warned that Pakistan’s remaining players in England would be mentally shattered by phone confiscations.
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The former wicketkeeper urged PCB to release the inquiry report publicly or risk fans turning permanently against the players.
MORE: Explained: PCB’s ‘internal disciplinary inquiry’ after 7 PAK players were sent home from England
Kamran Akmal slams PCB disciplinary inquiry: Ex-keeper accuses board of covering up mid-series sacking blunder in UK
Kamran Akmal has taken aim at the Pakistan Cricket Board, accusing the board of using a disciplinary inquiry, launched in the middle of a disastrous England tour, as nothing more than a smoke screen to pull attention away from its own panicked decision-making.
The PCB has been lurching from one crisis to another on this England tour. After losing the first two Tests at Headingley and Lord’s, the board swung the axe hard, sending seven players home, including Muhammad Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq and Salman Ali Agha, and also removing Test head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed, who was replaced by Mike Hesson for the third Test in Birmingham.
Then on Monday, PCB Director of Media and Communications Amir Mir confirmed that an internal disciplinary inquiry had been launched following media reports of alleged misconduct by players.
The board gave little else away: no details of what the inquiry specifically covers, no confirmation or denial of reports that players had their mobile phones confiscated for several hours, and no timeline for when findings might emerge.
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Kamran Akmal warns of mental damage inside the camp
Akmal was worried not just about the politics of the situation but about what it was doing to the players still on the ground in England.
He painted a picture of a squad in distress, already reeling from the mid-series overhaul, now dealing with phone confiscations and the uncertainty of an inquiry with no publicly stated scope.
“The players must be down mentally. In the last two days, we have heard that the phones have been taken,” he said on the Game Plan show.
“It has been reported that the data was transferred and the phones were taken away for four hours. I have heard that four players who are in England have also had their phones taken away. So, the atmosphere would be very bad, and players would be panicking right now.”
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He then drew a direct line between the board’s panicked response to the Test defeats and the inquiry, suggesting one was being used to overshadow the other.
“It would be very difficult for the team to come out of this situation. You made seven changes earlier, including changes to management,” he said.
“I am now feeling that the PCB could have handled the matter properly. You panicked, and I think you realised you had taken such a hurried call. So I feel, diversion is being created right now. My experience tells me that the blunder you made of sending seven players back, I think you want the people to keep thinking about this.”
Akmal steers clear of match-fixing claims but calls for transparency
Importantly, Akmal distinguished what the inquiry might actually be about and the more explosive theories circulating on social media.
He asked fans not to jump straight to fixing-related conclusions, suggesting the more likely reason for the phone seizures was the persistent and damaging leaking of team news to the media, a problem Pakistan touring parties have dealt with for years.
“Not just corruption. There are several matters,” he said.
“It would be the case of leaking the team news to the media. If phones have been taken away, I think this is the case. I would now urge the PCB to make the report public, else fans would be against these players forever.”
The inquiry reeks of deflection and the board knows it
Akmal’s instinct here is hard to argue with. When a board makes seven changes mid-series, sacks a coach, brings in a replacement from a different format, and then almost immediately launches a disciplinary inquiry, the order of events matters.
The inquiry didn’t come first, but the public humiliation did. The panic happened first, and the inquiry followed.
That sequencing is exactly what Akmal is calling out. If the PCB had genuine concerns about player conduct, the appropriate time to investigate was before or after the series, not in the middle of it, not two days after a mass squad exodus that itself looked reactive and chaotic.
Launching an inquiry now, in the middle of a live Test series, with players still preparing for a match in three days, serves one function above all others: it shifts the headline. Instead of talking about the board’s decision-making, fans and media are now speculating about player misconduct.
Pakistan cricket needs accountability at every level, from players and management alike. But accountability without transparency is just control. If the PCB wants the public to trust the process, releasing the findings openly is the bare minimum.
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Source: sports.yahoo.com
