Kevin Pietersen shows no mercy on Mohammad Amir
Kevin Pietersen became the first English player who was involved in the 2010 spot-fixing match to open up about the issue, reports ESPNcricinfo. He showed his anger about the fact that Pakistan’s Mohammad Amir has been given a chance to play cricket again and make a comeback to the national side.
The final match of 4-Test series between England and Pakistan was hit by spot-fixing where the visitors’ team members - Amir, Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif were caught taking the bribe to underperform deliberately at certain times in the Lord’s Test.
All three players were banned from playing any form of cricket for 5-10 years. The whole of cricket fraternity was shocked to see Amir, who was then just 18 years old, getting involved in such a heinous crime.
Amir made a comeback to the 22-yard pitch after serving the ban for almost 5 years. On 19 August 2015, Mohammad Amir was declared completely free to play all forms of cricket from September 02, 2015.
Speaking about Amir’s return to cricket, Pietersen said even though Amir was very young when he got involved in fixing, he shouldn't be allowed to play cricket again at all. T.he English man added that cricket is above everyone and there’s no place for corruption in the game.
"I know Mohammad Amir was only 18 when he got into trouble, and that he was a special talent," Pietersen says. "I also know that he and Mohammad Asif were from poor backgrounds and were offered a hell of a lot of money for a few seconds' work.
"But I don't care; they should not be coming back. I don't feel badly towards them and I wish them well in their lives, but the game is bigger than us, the game will be around a lot longer than us, and we don't have the right to steal from it.
"We play fairly, we play tough, we play positively, we play negatively, people play the way that they want to play. But there's no place in the game for corruption, and if you get caught you have to be given a life ban."
Amir was chosen as the Man-of-the-Series in that 2015 England Test for his stellar performance. He made a strong impact in the international and was liked by everyone, especially England’s Micael Atherton, who always used to speak about Amir as the next big thing.
After the incident, Atherton was quoted saying: "The 'kid' in question was Mohammad Aamer, the young, good-looking and prodigiously-talented Pakistan bowler who had blown England away on the second morning at Lord's with a mesmeric spell of left-arm bowling and who now, we had been told, had overstepped the front line twice for a few dollars more."
Pietersen added that the day when everything came out, no one in the England squad wanted to bowl to those players and were all feeling really sad for the game. He also marked that day as the worst day of his life.
By showing no mercy, Pietersen said: "When the spot-fixing story broke… that day was the worst I've experienced in cricket. The guys didn't even want to bowl to them, we didn't celebrate the wickets that we took; everything about it was horrendous. We just felt so much anger towards them. We could not believe what they'd done.
"Match-fixing, spot-fixing - I'm fierce about anything like that. If you're caught you should never play again because we have an amazing game. There are so many honest blokes out there, trying their hardest and committing to everything to make a living, and if you're cheating then sorry, I'm afraid that's got to be it."
"I'm not a person who has lived a perfect life," Pietersen said. "I don't think that anybody has the right to judge anybody: if you make mistakes, you make mistakes. We all do, because nobody's perfect and I was raised to recognise that. He obviously just loved money and got into the wrong scenario. So once he'd apologised and been punished, I was proud of how the country forgave him and happy that he could stay a hero. But that doesn't mean I disagreed with his life ban."