Umar Akmal should learn from his brother, suggests McCullum

SHARJAH: Talking about the dismal performance of Umar Akmal in this year’s Pakistan Super League (PSL), Brendon McCullum pointed out that Umar was an incredible talent but it was his lack of consistency that forced the Lahore Qalandars to look beyond him.

The Lahore captain said, “Umar is an incredible talent but he has had his issues which are well documented around this place as well. His consistency wasn’t there. And that’s why we had to look outside of (his) experience.”

McCullum suggested that Umar should learn from his brother Kamran Akmal who scored a blistering century against Lahore to seal victory for Peshawar Zalmi.

“Today, he got a great blueprint of what he should do from his brother and I am sure he sat back and thought he could be in a situation like this in the future. But he has to make sure that he is performing to get those opportunities.”

Praising Kamran, the 36-year-old called him “one the most explosive players in the world” and said, “he played an outstanding innings and won the game.”

He also advised that Umar had a lot of years in front of him by which he could finish his career on a high.

According to reports, Umar’s future with Lahore is in doubt considering that he hadn’t travelled with the team after being dropped and addressed complaints to the owners. However, Lahore has rejected the rumours saying, “Lahore Qalandars management refutes all rumours and news item appearing on social media regarding our star player Umar Akmal.”

Earlier in an interview, McCullum had opined that the 27-year-old batsman is a complicated guy, but an incredible talent. While answering a question about his experience dealing with him, McCullum said, “Umar Akmal is a complicated guy. He has had his troubles, well-documented troubles throughout his career.”

About the disappointing show from Lahore in PSL 2018, McCullum stressed, “We had high hopes when we came into the tournament. I thought we really did well in the drafts.”

He lauded the players including Agha Salman, Sohail Akhtar, Gulraiz, Shaheen Shah Afridi for their individual performances.

Lahore Qalandars and Multan Sultans were unable to reach the eliminators. The rest of the teams will be featuring in the Pakistan leg of PSL 3.