Tainted Pakistani pacer Mohammad Amir thinks he’s lucky to ware green cap again after spot fixing scandal.
The left-arm fast bowler was just 18 years old when he bowled deliberate no-balls in a Test match at Lord’s and was handed with a five-year ban from all forms of cricket by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
During his suspension for spot-fixing Amir even spent some time in a prison in England before being released for good behavior.
The other two culprits in the same offence former skipper Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif are still waiting for their returns to international cricket despite their five-year bans being lifted last year.
However, a new Amir swiftly passed through the rehabilitation program and is set to return to Lord’s next month.
Amir has played one-day internationals and Twenty20s since his ban was lifted on Sept. 3 last year, but his return to test cricket will be at the same Lord’s ground where the doors of international cricket were shut on him in 2010.
“To be honest I never thought about my comeback and I feel seriously lucky to play Test cricket again,” Amir told Associated Press as he prepared to leave for England on Saturday.
“You call it a coincidence or whatever, but to me it is a blessing that I am starting right from where I stopped in 2010.
“I might have made my comeback months ago but Test cricket is what I was looking forward to and this is my real comeback.”
“I had missed five best years of my life and had I continued playing cricket, everyone knows where I would have been standing today (in international cricket),” he said.
“I have not forgotten 2010 … and I want to supersede my past with a better future. I still hold those moments (from 2010) in my memory but I want to get my name on the honor board at Lord’s once again.”
