Mohd. Amir should be banned for life over spot-fixing scandal: Sarfraz Nawaz

Islamabad, Feb 27 (ANI): Pakistan pace bowler Sarfraz Nawaz has said that life bans should be imposed on Mohammad Amir, Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif for their involvement in the spot-fixing scandal during a Test match against England in 2010.

The trio was banned following the outburst of the controversy. Butt, who was captain of the Pakistan team at the time of the incident, was handed a ten-year ban, five years of which are suspended. Pace bowler Asif received a seven-year ban, with two years suspended, and fellow bowler Mohammad Amir was hit with a five-year ban.

Recently, former Pakistan captain Imran Khan had backed Amir, saying that he should be allowed to resume his cricket career once he has served his five-year ban. However Sarfraz disagreed with Imran's statement and feels that despite Amir's tender years, the left arm pace bowler should serve a life ban from cricket.

"I read Imran's statement with great surprise. In fact I was shocked that he said such a thing. I don't think Amir should be allowed to return to cricket at all and the Pakistan Cricket Board should not be offering to help him either. He should be banned for life." Pakpassion quoted Sarfraz, as saying.

Nawaz also feels that Amir and his two former colleagues have betrayed Pakistan and cheated genuine cricket lovers across the world, and therefore deserve little sympathy.

"They deserve no sympathy at all. It was a case of blatant cheating and the only reason was greed. All three of them were very talented cricketers. Amir had the world at his feet he was a bowler of genuine class and ability. Butt had just been given the honour of leading Pakistan in Test cricket and Asif had shown in England in 2010 what a thoughtful and impressive bowler he was. All of them threw that away, they tarnished the reputation of Pakistan cricket, cheated cricket lovers all over the world and betrayed the nation of Pakistan."

"It's simple, if you cheat your employer and your employer discovers what you have been up to, then you will get sacked and your employer will not re employ you or help you in any way. Why should these cricketers be any different?" Nawaz added. (ANI)