Cricket News

‘You didn’t do a favour to Pakistan cricket…’ – Shoaib Akthar’s old video of him lambasting Mohammad Amir goes viral amidst his international comeback

The Pakistan Cricket Board under Najam Sethi’s regime have given rise to a lot of chatter about Mohammad Amir’s return to international cricket. Amir had announced his retirement from international cricket. The decision to make a comeback is with Amir himself and is final and binding.

Sethi, on the other hand, has publicly addressed the matter and said that Amir can return freely if he wants to do so. Amir is currently playing in the Bangladesh Premier League. He is representing the Sylhet Strikers. He has picked up 13 wickets for the Strikers and at an economy rate of 5.95 from 10 matches.

“Mohammad Amir can play international cricket for Pakistan if he takes his retirement back. I always took a strong stance against match-fixing. I believe no convicted player should be spared, but at the same time, a player should be allowed to resume international cricket once he has completed his years of penalty,” Sethi said in a press conference that took place fourteen days ago.

That is not the right appraoch-  Shoaib Akhtar

The left-arm pacer was seen training at the high performance centre. He said he was being constantly pressurized and given the cold shoulder by the Team management which led him to call it quits in international cricket. He was stripped off his central contract before he retired from international cricket.

An old video of Shoaib Akthar lambasting Mohammad Amir and the Pakistan management has resurfaced. Here is what Athar had to say –

“PCB calling Mohammad Amir and asking do you want to play, in my opinion this is not the right approach,” Akhtar says in the video.

Here is the video-

https://youtu.be/2rQaqmlUKs8

“We were also dropped in the past, the PCB management was angry with me for almost 12 years, but this doesn’t mean that I should quit. Instead we should think what are Pakistan’s requirements, this was his mistake. Akthar added.

“He goes and says in interviews that he invested himself in cricket, he has been punished as well in the past. Well, you did something wrong, hence you were punished. You didn’t do a favour to Pakistan cricket. You had to repay what the country gave you, the country was expecting that from you.  “Until 2017 he had okay kind of performances, which was followed by a brilliant show in the Champions Trophy. However, after that there were hardly anything standard in the next 15-20 ODIs.” stated Akthar.