Mohammad Amir – everybody deserves a second chance

It was just another month in cricket. South Africa and England had put on 600+ innings totals at the Cape town Test, before the precociously-talented Kagiso Rabada finally stood up for the bowlers with three five-wicket hauls in the next four innings. On the other side of the globe, Indian and Australian bowlers showed no such resolve as they were getting pummeled mercilessly in a seemingly never-ending five-act play – 'The series of the 300s'. Just another month in cricket.

As he ran in to bowl his first over at the Basin Reserve, a section of the crowd began taunting him. Worse, his first ball, rather horribly, was a wide that brought back memories of that ignominious no-ball. Worse ensued when he returned to boundary duty after the over, and a certain spectator started waving currency notes as the bowler watched on despondently. Thankfully, former T20 captain Mohammad Hafeez stepped in to save the youngster from further humiliation as the fan was chastised and given a sound warning by the ground staff. Amir, uncowed, went on to finish the match with impressive figures of 3/28 off 8.1 overs before a freak injury cut short his 9th over.

Hafeez, though, has not always been on Amir's side. In fact, he had refused to attend the preparatory camp for the tour in December alongside Amir. “Hafeez had talked about his reservations when Amir was included in the camp and after meeting with Waqar. Hafeez told him categorically that he will not attend any part of the camp in which Amir is present,” a source close to Hafeez told AFP.

It was not just Hafeez.

Pride at stake

Of course the cricketers were indignant. Hafeez had always said that “it is about the image of Pakistan cricket”. Which was why he rushed to Amir's defence.

Aaqib Javed, Pakistan's bowling coach when the news of the scandal involving Asif, Amir and Salman Butt broke out in 2010, was mournfully philosophical about the incident when interviewed last September.

“It was the worst day of my life. I was the bowling coach then, and have just horrible horrible memories. That was the worst time of my life. All of us were so embarrassed. We couldn’t go out even to restaurants for a few weeks. In fact, we couldn’t even leave our hotel. It hit our dignity and we couldn’t show our faces anywhere. I don’t want to see something like that happening to Pakistan cricket or to any nation again,” Javed recalled that fateful event in an Indian Express exclusive.

That episode should, however, throw some obvious light into the reasons behind Amir's inclusion despite the public outcry – a need for Pakistan cricket to get back to its good times.

Grasping at glory

"It was baptism by fire. So much so that after my very first innings in Test cricket, during which I was all at sea against Wasim and Waqar, I began to doubt my ability to bat and question whether I was ever going to be good enough to play at international level,” said Sachin in his autobiography.

Nobody batted an eyelid when the internal commission dismissed the betting allegations against these two. They were just too big to fail, guilty or not we shall never know.

When Shoaib Akhtar hung his boots, the last of them had ridden into the sunset. As Pakistan harked back to those days, Mohammad Amir held out a final hope of putting Pakistan back on that pedestal. He was one in a generation. Unrefined yet, but he possessed raw pace and a real intellect. He was Akram reborn. And he was just 18.

He was so good that when Imran Khan saw him, he remarked “I saw both Akram and Amir bowl at the same age and I feel Amir is ahead of Akram.”

He did all that they hoped he would. But then, he went and did what that they had hoped he or anyone would not do again.

However, his return has rekindled those, a return grudgingly anticipated all through by a nation that holds wistful memories of the heydays.

Shahid Afridi was the first from the dressing room to lend a hand to the comeback kid.

"Happy to have Amir back in team," Afridi tweeted on January 1st. "He told me truth first time I asked him in England. He admitted his mistake we should back him now. Amir spoke the truth both to courts and the Pakistani public. Unlike the rest who kept lying for two-three years."

Aaqib Javed is a hard-nosed realist, an aberration in that land of romantics. He does not set much stock in tales of redemption.

“Amir was old enough to understand the right from the wrong. At least in the episode we are talking about. There is no question of him being treated differently because he is three years younger compared to the other guy. It’s about setting examples and age has nothing to do with it,” he told Express.

Away from the emotionally-charged atmosphere in Pakistan, the cricketing world has been fairly supportive of Amir. "He's done his time and been cleared to play," Mascarenhas said. "So we'll just get on with it and play against him," New Zealand's Mascarenhas said.

Bredon McCullum as well came out in support of Amir ahead of the tour.

He is still a very young man, all of 23 – an age when most dream of an international debut. An age when most of us still had received that first pay check. An entire life (to reader – should I use dream here) had been lived and lost in that span for Amir.

Second chances

Second chances. We all want second chances. That long lost friend we wish we had not given up on. The one love we wish we could get back to.

Second chances. The first one was fine. You were lucky and perhaps deserved it. But then you fall. You grope in the dark searching for a foothold. You grasp at straws for eternity before a helpful hand pulls you up. Not everyone of us, however, gets it. And that is why we want to root for Amir.