Saeed Ajmal accused of misusing 5.3 million rupees from his cricket academy

A year ago Saeed Ajmal had to shut his cricket academy in Faisalabad down owing to terror threats. "I was told that the Punjab government has sent advice to close down the academy temporarily because threats have been received against the academy that it may be attacked," said Ajmal.

The University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) administration has now charged Saeed Ajmal with misappropriating the money he's charging the students of his academy. They claim that Ajmal had charged Rs 15,000 as admission fees from a student, and he has over 350 members in his academy. The UAF has stopped Ajmal from conducting his training academy activities at the university grounds.

"He has not given any details of the nearly 5.3 million rupees he collected from the students, he has tried to forcibly occupy the land we gave him for the academy and he is now refusing to vacate it," an administration official claimed.

Ajmal was asked to wind his academy up back in August 2015 because of alleged irregularities. But owing to public pressure he was allowed to continue within a few days.

A new document has allegedly come to light which states that Ajmal has been collecting donations from national and international organizations.

“University gas was stolen at the academy and Ajmal tried to snatch the land from the university and made it a source of illegal earning. Hundreds of thousands of rupees were collected from players but no receipt has been issued to them by the academy, no record is maintained and no bank account was opened for this purpose,” the report says.

VC Dr Iqrar Ahmed stated that Ajmal himself isn't banned in any way, just his academy. “Ajmal was never prevented from playing and would be always welcome,” he said.

According to the document Ajmal provided fake particulars and concealed the facts about the academy. Ajmal had filed an application to the DCO on Oct 18, 2014, requesting transfer of the university land in his name for the revenue record.

Ajmal maintains his innocence in the matter. He said "I thought this matter was resolved on the intervention of the government last month and I held several meetings with the administration officials in the presence of the commissioner of Faisalabad."

"We had agreed amicably to settle all issues and that they would allow me to continue operating my academy which I have built with my own resources so that I could repay everything I have earned from cricket," Ajmal said.

"Now, apparently, they are making accusations against me, but I earned so much from cricket that I would never think about earning from this academy. If we did charge some nominal fees it was to cover the academy expenses including kits an equipment for its upkeep," he added.

Ajmal feels that this is a case of discrimination against him for not being as prominent in the Pakistan cricket team. He said "From the time I faced problems with my action and I went out of the Pakistan team and was no longer a certain selection the varsity citied security reasons for wanting to wind up my academy. Now they are making baseless allegations against me although when I met them I assured them the academy would be run as per their requirements and regulations.”