Big Bash side Sydney Thunder reject chance to sign Mohammad Amir
Pakistani fast bowler Mohammad Amir’s hopes of playing in the Big Bash this year has not materialised as Sydney Thunder rejected a chance to sign him up. The Sydney based franchise already have Jacques Kallis (last year's player of the tournament) as one of their overseas players and Amir's representatives contacted them to know if they were keen to sign an overseas fast bowler as their second.
But the franchise's general manager Nick Cummins has revealed that they were looking to sign another allrounder instead. "We approached the Sydney Thunder and at that point we thought they still had a spot left for a similar type of player," Simon Auteri, whose company Insignia Sports International represents Amir, was quoted as saying in the Sydney Morning Herald. "With the World Twenty20 coming up early next year we thought it might have been a decent fit."
"We appreciate with a lot of these teams abroad it will probably be a tough sell especially until he gets back playing at the highest level. He's back fully playing and he wants to play abroad, and he's still so young. We think that he does deserve another go and that's what we're trying to do."
Amir picked up a wicket first ball and ended up with one more in his first competitive match in the Super 8 T20 Cup after the ICC allowed him to play domestic cricket before the ban ends this year.