Controversy over Amir’s inclusion

Mohammad Amir’s sentence may be over, but his ordeal certainly isn’t. He is likely to endure more hardships off the field than on it as his transition into the national team begins. This process, in which he is being considered for selection at the highest level, has already seen several reactions with there being a clear divide  in the cricketing community over whether he should be in the reckoning or not. Mohammad Hafeez and Azhar Ali caused some controversy after refusing to join the national team’s conditioning camp in Lahore recently, before meeting Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Shahryar Khan and agreeing to rejoin the camp. What did all this achieve? Apart from creating some headlines, it reminded us that Amir’s comeback will be about more than just judging his form and fitness.

We believe that the approach employed by the PCB to transition him back into the national set-up was perhaps rather hasty, and not well thought through. Players needed to be on board before Amir was asked to join the camp, so that incidents like these could have been avoided. Perhaps, Amir should have been made to play more domestic cricket before being considered for the national team so that his transition could have been smoother. The 23-year-old has time on his side. Spending some more time in domestic cricket before graduating to the international level would not have hurt him. Additionally, it would have given national players more time to adjust themselves to the thought of playing alongside him. The fast-bowler himself would have realised that he is not a blue-eyed boy and that he needs Pakistan more than the team needs him. There is no question about his immense talent; it is his attitude that will now be tested. The PCB needed to have employed a more proactive approach here. One wonders why the chairman did not address the players’ concerns before Amir was included in the camp. Shahryar Khan may have diffused the current tension, but he won’t always be with the team when it is on tour. It is the PCB’s job to ensure that such untoward incidents do not happen again.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 27^th, 2015.

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