karachi the court of arbitration for sport cas has rejected the pakistan cricket boards request to conduct a hearing on umar akmals ban in dubaiearlier this year akmal was banned by the pcb for three years for failing to report corrupt approaches following which its own independent adjudicator reduced the suspension period to 18 monthsthe matter eventually reached the doorsteps of casaccording to a source close to the development the cas has turned down a request from the board which wanted the hearing to be held in dubai to minimise expenditurethe source said the pcb has now requested for the hearing to be held through a video link but the cas is yet to respondumar akmals legal team does not want the proceedings to be held through a video link so most likely the cas will also reject the pcbs fresh request he saidunder cas regulations for an online hearing the permission of both parties is requiredthe pcb and akmal have already responded to the notice of exchange the cas is expected to announce a date for the hearing in the coming weeksearlier this month the cas asked the pcb and akmal to submit written arguments within 20 daysthe pcb had gone to the cas with an appeal against the reduction of the threeyear ban by its independent adjudicator on the other hand the tainted batman wants the ban to be revokedformer supreme court judge mr justice retd faqir muhammad khokhar in his capacity as independent adjudicator had in july reduced akmals threeyear ban for failure to report two spotfixing approaches to 18 monthsjustice khokar noted in his final finding that the stance taken by akmal is selfcontradictoryakmal had been banned for three years in april by a oneman disciplinary panel of the pcb after two hearings following which his appeal was heard by the independent adjudicator