Muhammad Amir isn’t holding back against the current team management and has reaffirmed that he has no plans of returning to the national side until the management leaves.
The left-arm pace bowler took to Twitter and said that “I would like to clarify that yes I will be available for Pakistan only once this management leaves. so please stop spreading fake news just to sell your story.”
Who is Muhammad Amir referring to in his tweet. Is he talking about the people running the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) or talking about Misbah-ul-Haq and Waqar Younis
This feud started when the 28-year-old was left out of Pakistan’s 35-member squad for New Zealand and he expressed his disappointment on social media about this. Last month, he also took a dig at Waqar Younis, the bowling coach of Pakistan.
In an interview to a local journalist Shoaib Jutt in December, Muhammad Amir Said “Right now I am leaving cricket. I am being mentally tortured. I don’t think, I will be able to handle this kind of torture because I have been tortured a lot from 2010 to 2015.”
He further said he faced severe criticism from media and team management for leaving Test cricket.
“My personal decision to leave Test cricket was taken in a wrong way. My retirement was attached to my desire of playing T20 leagues. I was wishing to invest everything in white-ball cricket for Pakistan. But every now and then some one or the other person came out with a statement. Our bowling coach came out and said, I ditched them, somebody says work load wasn’t properly handled,” he further added.
Muhammad Amir retired from Test cricket in July 2019 due to workload concerns but was available for white-ball cricket for Pakistan.
“I don’t think he retired from red-ball cricket due to an increase in workload,” Waqar Younis said. “I recently saw him take part in franchise competitions and he is currently representing Pakistan in the limited-overs format as well. So, it was his own decision to not participate in red-ball cricket.”
Both Misbah and Waqar are under immense pressure after a disastrous tour of New Zealand in which Pakistan was clean sweeped. Last week, PCB’s cricket committee also expressed its dissatisfaction over team performances in the past 16 months. Furthermore, after the South African series, the committee will again review the performance.
It is pretty evident that who Muhammad Amir is referring to in his message. But the question remains, is he really trying to clarify his position or he is trying to mount pressure on the team management which is already being criticised by fans, media and the PCB officials? We still have a log way to go before this comes to a conclusion.
