Mohammad Amir at Lord’s will make me sick, says Graeme Swann

BySaketh RVK, SportsCafe Editor

07/09/2016

Former England spinner Graeme Swann has said that Mohammad Amir's return to Test Cricket at Lord’s later in July will make him feel sick. Mohammad Amir was found guilty of spot-fixing along with Salman Butt, and Mohammad Asif in 2010, and was handed a five-year ban by the ICC.

Graeme Swann was a part of the England team that played the infamous spot-fixing Test match against Pakistan at Lord’s in 2010. Even though Amir served a prison sentence in the United Kingdom and a five-year suspension, Swann wrote in his column for The Sun that he “should have been banned for life for his part in the corruption scandal of 2010.”

The off-spinner said that Amir’s incredible talent does not excuse what he did. He wrote, “Mohammad Amir will walk out on the green and glorious turf at Lord's on Thursday - and it will make me feel sick.

Also, read : Mohammad Amir – everybody deserves a second chance

“This is a man who crushed the morality of the game. And yet he is being allowed back to play at the Home of Cricket,” Swann wrote, in The Sun.

The former Northamptonshire player advocated harsher punishments, irrespective of the age of the offender or background.

“If you want to protect the integrity of the game, help cricket grow and inspire youngsters, there can be no place for corrupt players. You must have proper deterrents.

“The other mitigation for some is that, at just 18 and from a humble background where he learnt to obey his elders, Amir was an easily led, innocent victim, lured by his captain, Salman Butt, and a slippery agent.

“Again, it doesn’t wash. If you’re 18 and commit a crime, you go to prison,” he wrote.

England captain Alistair Cook had also spoken about Amir’s return earlier, saying the pacer would have to face hostile crowds in England. Amir himself, after completing his ban, said that anyone caught fixing should be banned for life.

Also, read : Kohli & Amir- Cricket world's Kane & Abel