Amir's return to Lord's makes me sick, says former England spinner

Swann doesn’t deny Amir's talent but feels that pacer has not paid enough for his wrongdoings

Pakistan left-arm pacer Mohammad Amir has served his five-year ban and gone through his rehabilitation process but some cricketers are still not in favour of his return to the international arena.

Former English cricketer Graeme Swann is one of the aforementioned anti-Amir campaigners. In a column for The Sun, Swann highlighted his detest for the 24-year-old who will make his Test comeback for Pakistan on Thursday against England at the Lord’s.

“Mohammad Amir will walk out on the green and glorious turf at Lord’s on Thursday — and it will make me feel sick,” wrote Swann. “This is a man who crushed the morality of the game. And yet he is being allowed back to play at the Home of Cricket.”

Swann doesn’t deny the talent that Amir possesses but he feels that the pacer has not paid enough for his wrongdoings.

“Amir should have been banned for life for his part in the corruption scandal of 2010,” he wrote. “He is an incredibly talented bowler — he took 6-84 in that infamous Lord’s Test six years ago — but that does not excuse what he did.

He added: “No matter how good you are, if you sell your soul for 30 pieces of silver, you have to pay the consequences. And I don’t think he has.”



The 37-year-old thinks that Amir’s case could have served as an example for all the players who are thinking of pursuing a career in cricket.

“The authorities could and should have created a much stronger deterrent across world cricket by making sure Amir never played again,” he further wrote. “I’ve heard all the arguments that Amir, like all criminals, should be reintegrated after serving his time (he was banned from cricket for five years and served half of a six-month sentence in a young offenders’ institution).”

“But there is a bigger picture here. If you want to protect the integrity of the game, help cricket grow and inspire youngsters, there can be no place for corrupt players. You must have proper deterrents,” he added.

Amir was given leverage due to an argument that he was young and naïve when he was lured into the spot-fixing scandal by Salman Butt and Muhammad Asif but the former off-spinner thinks this is not an excuse.

“The other mitigation for some is that, at just 18 and from a humble background where he learnt to obey his elders, Amir was an easily led, innocent victim, lured by his captain, Salman Butt, and a slippery agent,” he wrote. “Again, it doesn’t wash. If you’re 18 and commit a crime, you go to prison,” concluded Swann.