‘Fake’ injury claims blasted

Alam denies Akmal faked a finger injury in a desperate bid to save his blundering brother Kamran’s place in the team.

PALLEKELE:

Pakistan manager Intikhab Alam denied Umar Akmal had faked a finger injury in a desperate bid to save his blundering brother Kamran’s place in the team.

Umar, who has been tipped to take the wicket-keeping gloves from his elder brother for tomorrow’s World Cup match against Zimbabwe, hurt his index finger on his right hand in practice two days ago.

But media have claimed that Umar is feigning injury to save Kamran like he had done earlier in the Australian tour last year. Team management had accused Umar of feigning injury after the infamous Sydney Test against Australia in January 2010, a Test in which Kamran missed three catches off century-maker Michael Hussey and a run-out of Shane Watson. Then, Umar reportedly refused to play if his brother was dropped.

But Alam insisted there is nothing sinister in the 20-year-old Umar’s World Cup injury.

“There is no such thing and we will wait and see how the injury heals,” said Alam.

“Umar has pain when he bends the finger and there was slight swelling but since scans revealed no fracture we will wait until the morning of the match against Zimbabwe,” said Alam of Pakistan’s Group A game.

Umar missed training for the second day in a row, raising doubts over his availability for the match.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13^th, 2011.