Pakistan batsman Umar Akmal was banned for three years by the country’s cricket board on Monday for failing to report corrupt approaches ahead of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) this year.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had suspended the 29-year-old middle-order batsman in February pending an anti-corruption investigation by its disciplinary panel.

The PCB charged Akmal for two breaches of Article 2.4.4 of its anti-corruption code in two unrelated incidents ahead of the PSL. Akmal had decided against appealing against the charges last month.

The Article 2.4.4 deals with: “Failing to disclose to the PCB vigilance and security department (without unnecessary delay) full details of any approaches or invitations received by the participant to engage in corrupt conduct under this anti-corruption code.”

Reacting to the ban, former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja said time has come to criminalise match-fixing. “So Umar Akmal officially makes it to the list of idiots! Banned for 3 years. What a waste of a talent!

“It’s high time that Pakistan moved towards passing a legislative law against match fixing,” Raja tweeted.

Akmal, the younger brother of former Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran and cousin of Babar Azam, has featured in 16 Tests, 121 ODIs and 84 T20Is, scoring 1,003, 3,194 and 1,690 runs, respectively. He made a promising start to his international career, getting a hundred in New Zealand on his Test debut. But he struggled with consistency.

“Umar Akmal handed three-year ban from all cricket by Chairman of the Disciplinary Panel Mr Justice (retired) Fazal-e-Miran Chauhan,” read a tweet from PCB’s media department.

Akmal’s case had gone directly to the PCB disciplinary panel after he opted to forego the right to a hearing before the anti-corruption tribunal, where he could have pleaded his innocence and contested the charges.

Akmal represented himself at the hearing, while lawyer Taffazul Rizvi represented the PCB.