Should Amir be fast-tracked into the team?
Should Amir be fast-tracked into the team?
Earlier this week, Mohammad Amir gave an interview about how hopeful he was of returning to the cricketing fold once his ban concludes in September 2015. This interview comes on the heels of the news that the International Cricket Council (ICC) has approved a few changes to its anti-corruption code which would allow banned cricketers to return to domestic cricket before the completion of their suspension.
In the interview Mohammad Amir came across as the wunderkind that he has been regarded as. But it is this thought that keeps him under the impression that his return to the national team and international arena will be really swift.
But the question that should be asked right now is this: will he be able to return with the same impact that he had before the ban? There aren’t many case studies of cricketers returning to top-level cricket after a lengthy suspension except for Marlon Samuels who, too, had his burgeoning career cut short after he was slapped with a two year ban in May 2008 when found guilty of “receiving money, or benefit or other reward that could bring him or the game of cricket into disrepute”.
Samuels, who was immediately reinstated into the team after his ban ended, as a cry for help from the West Indies Cricket Board, did not start performing instantly upon his return but took almost a year to re-acclimatise to the game.
But, of course, to compare the travails of Amir to that of Marlon Samuels would be unfair as in the case of Samuels, the time off was far shorter than the five years that Amir had been serving.
In the years gone by since the Spot Fixing saga of 2010, Pakistan has arguably lost one of the finest new ball pairs in Amir and Asif but have unearthed a pace battery of sorts with the emergence of Mohammad Irfan, Wahab Riaz, Rahat Ali, Imran Khan and the equally talented Junaid Khan. Therefore, it is debatable whether Amir can leapfrog the current pecking order to return to the national team.
The important question here is whether Amir should be allowed to return to the team. Many would say no, arguing that a player who has brought both the game and should be made an example out of but shouldn’t a person who has served his sentence be given a shot at rehabilitation?
Published in The Express Tribune, November 17th, 2014.
In the interview Mohammad Amir came across as the wunderkind that he has been regarded as. But it is this thought that keeps him under the impression that his return to the national team and international arena will be really swift.
But the question that should be asked right now is this: will he be able to return with the same impact that he had before the ban? There aren’t many case studies of cricketers returning to top-level cricket after a lengthy suspension except for Marlon Samuels who, too, had his burgeoning career cut short after he was slapped with a two year ban in May 2008 when found guilty of “receiving money, or benefit or other reward that could bring him or the game of cricket into disrepute”.
Samuels, who was immediately reinstated into the team after his ban ended, as a cry for help from the West Indies Cricket Board, did not start performing instantly upon his return but took almost a year to re-acclimatise to the game.
But, of course, to compare the travails of Amir to that of Marlon Samuels would be unfair as in the case of Samuels, the time off was far shorter than the five years that Amir had been serving.
In the years gone by since the Spot Fixing saga of 2010, Pakistan has arguably lost one of the finest new ball pairs in Amir and Asif but have unearthed a pace battery of sorts with the emergence of Mohammad Irfan, Wahab Riaz, Rahat Ali, Imran Khan and the equally talented Junaid Khan. Therefore, it is debatable whether Amir can leapfrog the current pecking order to return to the national team.
The important question here is whether Amir should be allowed to return to the team. Many would say no, arguing that a player who has brought both the game and should be made an example out of but shouldn’t a person who has served his sentence be given a shot at rehabilitation?
Published in The Express Tribune, November 17th, 2014.