A day after the new PCB chief Najam Sethi said he has “no problems if Mohammad Amir, Pakistani legend Inzamam-ul-Haq too has come out in support.
“Mohammad Amir is a good player, no doubt. If his fitness is good and if he wants to play and does well at domestic, then he should be considered for national selection for sure,” Inzamam told reporters.
Previously, Najam Sethi had spoken on the issue of Amir, who was banned for 5 years for his involvement in spot-fixing scandal in 2010. He then returned to play for Pakistan before announcing his retirement.
“Amir has been a very good performer for Pakistan and we have no problems if he wants to make himself available for selection again,” Sethi had said. “My thinking is that once a player has completed his ban, he deserves a second chance like everyone else.”
Inzamam-ul-Haq. (File)
In the recent past, there has been an ongoing tiff between Amir and the former PCB president Rameez Raja.
The latest episode of the spat was when Raja referenced Amir and also included Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis.
“I think no one tainted by fixing issue should have had the chance of coming back to Pakistan cricket. If Wasim Akram’s name is in there, and he was censured for not cooperating, right? It was a borderline case. If I was the decision maker at the time, I would’ve banned them forever. You brought them back to system. I wasn’t in power at the time. We were told to play with them and work with them, and that was it. No one knew how to tackle that. So many people were involved in that. I don’t know what the compulsion was,” Raja had said.
Amir had taken a potshot at Raja soon after.
“You [Rameez] are saying they launched an attack, describing the way they entered. I think they way the previous government brought you, similarly the new one brought them.
“Najam Sethi had stepped down from his position quietly. He didn’t point fingers at anyone, nor did he do any paid TV interviews, where he claimed he had been done wrong. If you start counting his achievements, there are plenty. When Zimbabwe first toured in 2015-16, he was there. No one was ready to buy PSL, he ensured that it happened. The list is endless and he could have also cried on TV,” Amir said.
The out-of-favour pacer further said Raja did the least as the PCB but talked a lot.
“But you did nothing and talked too much. The amount of damage you’ve done from 2019-2022, I think Najam Sethi will have to work a lot to rectify them,” Amir had said.