Bureau Report
LAHORE: Pacer Mohammad Amir has announced his retirement from international cricket at the age of 28, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) confirmed on Thursday.
During a conversation, “[Amir] confirmed to the PCB chief executive that he has no desires or intentions of playing international cricket and, as such, he should not be considered for future international matches,” the PCB said in a statement.
The bowler had announced his decision to domestic television, saying he was “mentally tortured” by teammates and coaches, the board, and by opponents wherever he played. “I don’t think I can bear such torture,” he told the channel.
“This is a personal decision of Mohammad Amir, which the PCB respects,” the PCB said. The board not thanking Amir for his services underlined the depth of the estrangement between them.
The left-arm took 259 wickets across 36 tests, 61 One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and 50 T20s.
Amir was 18 when he was banned in 2010 for five years and jailed for three months for spot-fixing in a Test series in England. He was allowed to return to cricket a few months early and recalled in 2016. In 2019, he no longer wanted to play Tests, to focus on white-ball cricket and prolong his international career.
His last international was in August in a T20 against England. He was not part of the limited-overs home series against Zimbabwe and left out of the T20 series in New Zealand starting on Friday.
“I’ve borne lots of torture from 2010 to 2015, for which I served my time. I’ve been tortured by being told the PCB invested a lot in me. I’ll just say two people invested in me a lot: Najam Sethi [the former PCB chairman] and Shahid Afridi. They were the only two.”
“The rest of the team was saying we don’t want to play with Amir.”
“Recently, the atmosphere that’s been created means I get taunted all the time by being told I don’t want to play for my country. Every two months, someone says something against me. Sometimes the bowling coach [Waqar Younis] says Amir ditched us, sometimes I’m told my workload is unsatisfactory.” “Enough is enough,” he said.
