Ramiz Raja fumes over Mohammad Amir’s return to national team

• Ramiz Raja was against Mohammad Amir’s return to national team.
• Raja believes players involved in match-fixing shouldn’t be allowed back.
• Amir retired in 2020 at 28 citing issues with management.

Ex-Pakistan skipper and famed commentator Ramiz Raja has shared his thoughts on fast bowler Mohammad Amir’s return to the national cricket team.

Amir, who recently reversed his retirement decision, is currently participating in a fitness camp in Kakul, Abbottabad.

However, Raja is of the opinion that a player who was previously involved in match-fixing should not be reintegrated into the team.

“My opinion on this is very simple. While sympathy may exist for him [Amir], in my book there is no forgiveness. If God forbid my son was to engage in such actions, I would disown him,” Raja expressed on a local news channel.

“I remember the time when these players did fixing because I was doing commentary at Lord’s. People hated me because I was being identified with the fixers, in their opinion, and I can never forget the criticism we faced on media,” he further added.

Amir, along with Mohammad Asif and Salman Butt, was handed a five-year ban from international cricket by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in a spot-fixing case in 2010.

Amir also served half of a six-month sentence in young offenders institutes in Feltham and Dorset.

Upon his return in 2016, the 31-year-old played a pivotal role in Pakistan’s victory in the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 where the Men in Green outplayed their arch-rivals India in the final by 180 runs.

Amir’s unforgettable spell in the final, where he took out India’s top order by dismissing Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli, is still remembered.

However, the left-arm pacer announced his retirement from international cricket at the age of 28 in December 2020, stating that he could no longer play under the current management and that he was being “tortured mentally”.

Amir has represented Pakistan in 36 Tests, 61 One-Day Internationals and 50 T20s.

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