Mohammad Amir swings away from movie debut

Cricketer postpones plan of featuring in Blind Love as he may get cleared to play domestic cricket by January 2015.

KARACHI: Pakistani cinema enthusiasts may have to wait a little more for Mohammad Amir to appear on the big screen, as the banned pacer has postponed his plans to appear in the film Blind Love. His decision follows the indication of him getting cleared by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for resuming domestic cricket by January 2015.

“For now, I will have to postpone my plan of starring in Blind Love because my first priority has always been cricket and that will always be the case,” Amir tells The Express Tribune. “I can’t wait to hit the ground running by appearing in the competitive first-class circuit and eventually, stepping in international cricket again,” he adds.



His original ban was to end in September 2015, but strong lobbying from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) bore results in his favour. With the ICC amending its anti-corruption laws in a recently concluded board meeting, the 22-year-old is set to gain the maximum out of it. About his stint in the film, Amir had previously said, “In the last couple of years, I had nothing to do. So, when the well-known filmmaker Faisal Bukhari approached me to be a part of the film, I accepted [the offer].”

Amir was busted in the ‘spot-fixing’ case along with teammates Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif after Pakistan’s tour of England in 2010. Consequently, Amir had to spend three months in the young offenders’ institute. “There are positive signs that I’ll be cleared after an ICC meeting in January 2015 to appear in domestic cricket, so my first focus now is to get fit in time,” comments Amir.

It has been more than four years since Amir last played a top-class match, but he claims that he can still bowl at the same speed. “I still have the ability to roll over my arm and bowl over 140km/h. All I need to do is to keep myself fit for the challenges ahead and train as hard as possible for coming weeks,” he said.

Amir represented Pakistan in 14 Test matches and claimed 51 wickets, becoming the youngest bowler to reach 50 Test wickets while he took 25 scalps in 15 ODIs. Amir also helped Pakistan bag the World Twenty20 crown in 2009 and had taken 23 wickets in 18 T20Is before the ban was levied upon him.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 17^th, 2014.

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