Mohammad Amir broke through onto the international stage as a 17-year-old and my word did he impress. How many other players have managed to write their name on the honour board at Lord’s at 18 years of age? Not many.
From all the highlight clips on YouTube and from what I remember of his bowling, he was quick-quick-quick and swung it in late to the right hander.
To put it simply, Shane Watson’s worst nightmare.
Unfortunately he copped a five-year ban for spot-fixing.
A vulnerable young man under the pressure and instruction of senior players and illegal bookmakers, by no means is he free of guilt in the whole ordeal but he was caught up in a sad situation which has left a dark stain on his reputation.
Now 23, Amir still has the time to become a legend of the game. He has the talent, and after five years out he will be champing at the bit to make up for lost time.
Amir has kicked off his career for the second time playing domestic cricket in Pakistan for the past several months. The next step is step into the international arena again, hopefully donning the whites in the Pakistani Test side.
He might play a bit of IPL along the way but all the while he will be taking wickets, and then he will take more wickets.
Like Australia’s premier left-arm fast bowler, Mitchell Starc, he is more than capable of playing all three forms of the game. It can be argued the Amir of five years ago is a better bowler than the Starc of now.
Amir was absolutely deadly with the ball in hand before his ban. Honestly, he was just a kid and he was ripping out the stumps for fun. And these weren’t any old mugs, these were some of the best batsmen in the world.
At 18 he was the youngest player to reach 50 Test wickets, and was hailed as one of the world’s most promising bowlers.
He is more than capable of going past Wasim Akram’s tally of 414 Test wickets in the time he has left in his career.
Can he become a legend of the game? Sure.
Will the cricket world allow him to become a legend? Maybe.
Or will Mohammad Amir forever be the kid lost to scourge of match-fixing?
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