Pakistan wicket-keeper batsman, Umar Akmal seems to be left the country mid-season in order to participate in league cricket in the USA. Recent reports are suggesting that Akmal has signed a short-term deal with the Northern California Cricket Association but is considering signing up a long-term deal. Currently, he is representing California Zalmi in the ongoing season of the Premier C league.

Umar Akmal recently witnessed a comeback to competitive cricket after serving a ban for breaching the PCB’s anti-corruption code. However, the recent reports claim that his return was not well received. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) board helped Akmal during the rehabilitation program but his selection in the domestic cricket was kept on hold.

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There has been no confirmation about the participation of Umar Akmal in the upcoming domestic season. Also, his family has confirmed he has left for the USA. Meanwhile, one of the family members of Umar Akmal believes that to keep him of selection criteria, fitness benchmarks were made tighter.

The family member informed, “There are a few others who were banned with bigger charges but given unprecedented support to make a comeback. The system was never fair to Umar. There were blatant compromises made to select a few players with poor fitness, but the benchmark was made tighter for him [Umar] to make sure keep him out.”

Meanwhile, the family member didn’t name the cricketers but it has been told that the board had relaxed its fitness criteria for Azam Khan, Sohaib Maqsood, and Sharjeel Khan.

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Some of the reports also suggested that Umar Akmal moving to California could restart his journey in cricket. USA Cricket has been making serious efforts to bring in overseas players in the cricket leagues organized in the country.