Mohammad Amir Announces Indefinite Break From International Cricket, Says He Was 'Mentally Tortured' By The Management

Pakistan fast bowler, Mohammad Amir has announced a sudden indefinite break from playing international cricket for Pakistan. He is playing only white-ball cricket after retiring from Test cricket, last year.

This could also be considered as an unofficial retirement from national duties, and we may never see Amir in the green outfit for his country again. Mohammad Amir took 81 wickets in 61 ODIs and 59 wickets in 50 T20Is.

The left-arm pacer was disappointed after being dropped from the T20 squad to tour New Zealand. The seamer is unhappy with the management comprising of head coach, Misbah-ul-Haq, and bowling coach, Waqar Younis. He says that he was ‘mentally tortured’ by the management and will soon release an official statement regarding his retirement.

Amir retired from Test cricket in July 2019 and cited workload issues as the reason after picking 119 scalps in 36 Tests.  In the recently concluded Lanka Premier League, he snared 11 wickets in 10 matches for Galle Gladiators who lost the final on Wednesday.

“Right now I am leaving cricket. I am being mentally tortured. I don’t think, I will be able to handle this kind of torture because I have been tortured a lot from 2010 to 2015,” Amir was quoted as saying by CricTracker.

“My personal decision to leave Test cricket was taken in a wrong way. My retirement was attached to my desire of playing T20 leagues. I was wishing to invest everything in white-ball cricket for Pakistan. But every now and then some one or the other person came out with a statement. Our bowling coach came out and said, I ditched them, somebody says work load wasn’t properly handled,” he further added.

Is Mohammad Amir planning for the IPL?

The belief about Mohammad Amir’s sudden decision could be that the left-arm pacer is vying for a stint in the Indian Premier League(IPL). Last year, Amir had applied for British citizenship. His wife, Narjis Amir currently holds a UK passport, hence Amir is eligible to get citizenship in England. Since Pakistani players are not allowed to play in the IPL, this could be Amir’s path to play in the richest T20 league in the world.

He would then be also eligible to play for England. There have been several overseas-born players who have played for England over the years, including plenty in the 2019 World Cup-winning side.

For example, Jofra Archer, born in Barbados came to England in 2015. Earlier, the ECB has set a bar of 7 years for a cricketer to live in England, and then he would be eligible to play for the country. However, with the 2019 World Cup at home in view, the ECB decreased the period to three years which made Archer eligible to play for England.

Hence, Amir, 28 could play for England in the next phase of his career. Moreover, if he attains a British visa he would be allowed to participate in the IPL. Earlier, Azhar Mahmood born in Rawalpindi has played in the IPL for Kings XI Punjab and Kolkata Knight Riders after attaining a British visa.

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