Sports

I will make a strong comeback: Amir

Mohammad Amir vows to recover, confirms he will exercise his right to appeal verdict of five-year ban.

Afp February 08, 2011

LONDON: Pakistan’s banned fast-bowler Mohammad Amir has promised to come back from the “worst day of my life” after confirming he will exercise his right to appeal the verdict of a five-year ban from cricket for his part in the spot-fixing scandal.

An International Cricket Council (ICC) anti-corruption tribunal also handed out longer bans to former captain Salman Butt and fast-bowler Mohammad Asif for the roles they played in bowling deliberate no-balls during last year’s Test against England at Lord’s.

Prior to the scandal, Amir was regarded as one of the hottest property in the cricket world. And the thought that at the age of 18 his career might be over was almost too much for Amir to comprehend.

‘Worst day of my life’

“What can I say about my feelings?” Amir told the BBC. “When one sees, in front of him, the end of his future, his career, then that is the worst day of one’s life. Cricket is the most important thing in my life because I left my studies for cricket; I was so passionate about it. “My family depends on me and I depend upon cricket so the entire thing will be upset by this decision. We [Amir and his lawyer] have the option to appeal which we will exercise.”

‘I will never lose hope’

However, the teenager vowed to recover from the controversy.

“About the future, I will never lose hope. I have never done that in my life. I’ll always take it as something which will propel me to do better and I’ll do everything in my power to make a strong comeback. I have firm faith that God must have some lessons for me to learn from all of this.

“I’ll try to work hard, make a comeback, and learn good things out of these bad days,” he added.

Meanwhile, Salman, too, has indicated he wishes to appeal but Asif is still considering his options, according to a statement issued by his London-based lawyer, Addleshaw Goddard.

“Asif has co-operated fully with the ICC’s investigation and is very disappointed and upset by the decision it reached,” the statement said. “Together with his legal representatives, he is now considering his response and will not be commenting further due to the ongoing criminal proceedings.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2011.

COMMENTS (6)

Noon Ghunna | 13 years ago | Reply Amir is under sever pressure either by Salman Butt’s mafia or by Sattay Baaz syndicate. That is whay he is not taking any names. On judges inquiry to Amir that “How come you bowled 2 No Balls on exactly the same moment as Mazhar Majeed said in the secret taped vdo” . Amir replied that it was just out of FLUKE..a coincident. Bahahhahhaha... .Judge called a statistician. He said Amir bowled 17 no balls in his career and only 4 in this test series. That makes a probability of 1 : 1.5Million for MM to predict the no balls correctly. The judge hence deduce to the conclusion that these no balls were fixed. Report shared a short story of Match Fixing scandal of the century “Black Sox Scandal”. Do read page 90 “POSTSCRIPT”. I loved it.

Hassan | 13 years ago | Reply BBC are reporting that Salman Butt was under investigation on a previous Pakistan tour of the West indies concerning phone calls and text messages, Here is the link if you want to read it. link text

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Farouk Khan | 13 years ago | Reply Not an iota of shame nor an apology. No Mea culpa. Their only cynical defence it seems is others too were or are doing it. Its all part of the prevalent culture. Everything like corruption is kosher in Pakistan.

Asit | 13 years ago | Reply He did not think it was his worst day when he decided to take money to sell the pride of country. These cheats did not even once said sorry to what they have done to their fans. It is shocking to see that there is no sense of apology. All should have been banned for life.

haze786 | 13 years ago | Reply inshallah come back strong brother....good luck ...

Saleem Siddiqi | 13 years ago | Reply Being a Muslim one has to face the music for betting which is HARAM in our Muslim religion. Sometimes we get punishment in this world too. But for sure one gets its severe punishment at time of Day of Judgement. ICC must be having solid proof before pronoucing this judgement. They had made sure to check rooms of these players to find tainted currency notes which has put coffin in their nail. Jaisa karo gay waisa Bharo gay. They have not got insulted by themselves but also Pakistan's name was also tarnished as sportsmen are regarded as Ambasador of their own country. I would suggest to PCB to put life Ban on such greedy Cricketers so that others might not even think for cheating or receiving bribes. We have no mercy with such Cricketers who sell their and country's honour for few bucks. Let them be prisioner of their own concience for the whole of their life.

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