Mohammad Amir to make comeback in March
Mohammad Amir has been signed by Omar Associates to play in the Patron's Trophy Grade-II national tournament which begins from March 9. Mohammad Amir was allowed by the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit of the International Cricket Council (ICC) to play domestic cricket in Pakistan with immediate effect.
The Patron’s Trophy Grade-II national tournament is one league below first-class and their chief, Nadeem Omar, believes that Amir can, sometime in the future, become an ambassador of morality.
“We have signed Amir to play for our team in the Grade-II as we think that everybody deserves a second chance in life and career,” Associates' chief Nadeem Omar said.
“We have signed Amir because he has fulfilled everything which was required of him and the ICC and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) cleared him,” he said.
“He is a very good talent and can be used as an ambassador of morality in the future.”
The decision by ICC followed their ruling last year, which allowed all banned players to return to first-class cricket a few months before their ban expires.
Amir was banned for five years along with Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif over a spot-fixing case in England in 2010. The trio was found guilty of bowling no-balls deliverately in return for money during a Test match in Lord’s, England in August that year.
They were jailed in Britain, along with their agent Mazhar Majeed a year later.
Former Pakistan pacer Sarfraz Nawaz, recently said he did not want Amir to return and wanted the PCB to make an example out of him. A citizen went to the lengths of filing a petition in Court preventing the 22-year-old from making a return to cricket.
It remains to be seen how his comeback will be received by his home country.