Ramiz Raja: “Wherever tainted cricketers exist in the world, they are usually expelled. While I sympathise with them, forgiveness isn’t in my book. If, God forbid, my son had done such a thing, I would disown him”
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Former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ramiz Raja said he would “disown” his own if he did what left-arm seamer Mohammad Amir did back in 2010.
Nearly 15 years ago, Amir was implicated in a spot-fixing scandal along with Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif.
He served a five-year ban and ultimately ended up returning to international cricket before retiring in December 2020.
However, Amir has now reversed his decision to retire from international cricket, meaning he will be available to play for the men in green again.
But, Ramiz feels that the 31-year-old should have never been allowed to play for Pakistan in the first place as he committed an egregious act.
“My views on Mohammad Amir are very straightforward. I haven’t taken an oath to fix cricket, but I believe it’s important for society and fans to understand. When he was involved in fixing, I was commentating at Lord’s, and I could feel the intense hatred directed towards me because I was identifying the fixers. The amount of criticism I faced from the media during that time is something I can never forget,” he was quoted as saying by NDTV.
“Wherever tainted cricketers exist in the world, they are usually expelled. While I sympathise with them, forgiveness isn’t in my book. If, God forbid, my son had done such a thing, I would disown him.”
Amir recently played for the Quetta Gladiators in the 2024 Pakistan Super League (PSL) and took 10 wickets in nine matches at an average of 28.60 and an economy rate of 8.41.
Pakistan’s next assignment will be a five-match T20I series against New Zealand, which will be held in Rawalpindi and Lahore from April 18 to 27.
Pakistan Squad for New Zealand T20I Series: Babar Azam (captain), Abrar Ahmed, Azam Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Amir, Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Usama Mir, Usman Khan, Zaman Khan
Non-travelling reserves: Haseebullah Khan, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Sahibzada Farhan, Salman Ali Agha