Life has indeed come a full circle for Pakistani pacer Mohammad Aamir. The left arm pacer played his last test at Lord’s in 2010, before being banned from international cricket on account of spot-fixing. Six years later, Aamir is set to return to test cricket, and it’s that venue again – Lord’s.
In between these six years, though, Aamir has gone through a rough patch. The pacer was taunted, mocked and even accused of being a traitor, but today, all these allegations seem senseless. Aamir seems to be a changed individual, guilty of his deeds, and eager to redeem himself. England pacer Stuart Broad admitted just that in an interview and mentioned that there would be no negativity towards Aamir from the English camp for the upcoming test series between the two sides.
“It’s certainly not devalued in my mind, I still scored those runs and am still on the honours board,” Broad said. “I think the result was devalued. We couldn’t celebrate – we didn’t celebrate – it was all a very strange time. But I don’t think any feelings will be dragged into this Test match from that Test match. I think only three or four players are playing in the England team now who were then, and Pakistan have had a huge changeover.”
“I don’t think any ill feeling or negativity from the players will have carried through – the crowd might be a different story. We know that Lord’s is a passionate crowd and they all have their own minds.”
“I think he’s served his time and the ICC have got their guidelines to what the punishments are for certain crimes and people have their opinion on that,” Broad said. “At the end of the day as an England team to win a Test series like that is a brilliant feeling and you want to play against the best possible team you can and for the quality of bowler I don’t think there is much doubt that he is up there with anyone. “I’ve not played him for six years but in 2010 he was a constant threat and he was Man of the Series I think. It swung round corners for him,” Broad added.