Nothing wrong in giving Mohammed Amir a second chance

Mohammed Amir cheated, acknowledged it and served his punishment. Now he should be allowed to move on with his life by trying to resume what remains of his old one, writes Osman Samiuddin.

Mohammed Amir's comeback could be at a good time, given he may have Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan to guide him. Ian Kington / AFP

Sometime soon, Mohammed Amir will return to the profession from which he once earned his living, which made his name and which he cheated.

I am fine with that. In modern life and society we offer rehabilitation for all but the worst offenders. Much as we might argue, sport is inseparable from modern life and society, so, in my mind, there is no reason why those principles should not apply to professional sports people.

Amir cheated, eventually acknowledged it and served his punishment. Now he should be allowed to move on with his life by trying to resume what remains of his old one.

His return does not send the wrong message, that fixing pays. Amir has not had an easy four years and will not have an easy few years ahead.

This will stay with him for life, in a way that it has not with some of his predecessors.

Many have said they believe he should not be allowed back.

The former Pakistan captain, Ramiz Raja, wrote it in a newspaper column. Raja wrote powerfully from personal experience and, as one of the few players not tainted in the 1990s by corruption, he has authority.

He suffered for being clean and playing alongside men who were trying to lose the games he was striving to win.

It could not have been pleasant to be in a side everyone thought was corrupt, when you knew you were not. So Raja’s opinion is forceful and reasonable.

Others will add different arguments: a person who defrauded his employer cannot hope to be employed by the same people again. There is weight to the counter.

The only opinions that will matter, though, are those of the people Amir goes back to: his domestic employers and teammates, then, if he gets there, his national teammates. It is whether they can trust him again, whether they can forgive him that will decide the fate of his return.

A couple of years ago I asked Mohammed Hafeez about the toll from the various controversies that had coincided with his career, but he mistook that as a question solely about the spot-fixing for which Amir and two others were punished.

He was scathing of the “one or two individuals” whose actions meant the “whole country has been given a bad reputation”.

He bristled with feeling and rightly so because, as a national player and Twenty20 captain, he is a public representative whose actions help to forge (whether we like it or not) the reputation of his country.

Hafeez and others went through hell in the days after the fix came to light. They played an entire ODI series with their integrity under permanent attack and it went on for months.

Others, such as Junaid Khan, who has served Pakistan so well firstly in place of Amir and then, gradually, in his own right, find themselves witnessing an unseemly eagerness from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to bring back a man who has not bowled in four years.

It must leave Junaid with questions about how the PCB feels about his development.

If Amir returns, it must happen while Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan are still around. His welcome back to the fold will depend largely on the tone the two most fatherly figures set.

Neither was in the side during that England tour, which may help detach them from the heat and angst generated from it.

Younis has already set his line; he has, he said, no objections to a player returning if the sentence has been served.

But he will not have any influence on opposition behaviour.

Amir should be allowed to come back; but he should be ready for it not being the happy place it was when he left.

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