In Pakistan's controversial past, it has always been the senior players who were accused of corruption
In Pakistan's controversial past, it has always been the senior players who were accused of corruption. But yesterday's spot fixing controversy involved a young man ufffd a teenager called Mohammad Amir (18 years, 139 days).
Left-arm swing bowler Amir has been one of the most impressive young men in international cricket. Pundits drew comparisons with past master Wasim Akram, who helped Pakistan win the 1992 World Cup final even before Amir was born. The other day, Akram admitted that Amir was wiser than him at his age.
So far, so good until it was revealed yesterday that Amir and pace bowling partner Mohammad Asif had allegedly 'obliged' a bookie by bowling no-balls. According the News of the World newspaper which paid 150,000 pounds to Mazhar Majeed for details about the timing of three no-balls in the Lord's Test in a sting operation, Mazhar telephoned Amir in his London hotel room and said, "are you sleeping f***er? Ok, sleep. We've spoken about everything before anyway. Ok, don't mind. You sleep."
It's all fixed
About the no-balls, Mazhar told the newspaper reporter: "There's no risk, there's no signal... these three (no-balls) are definitely happening. They've all been organised, okay? So, the first ball of the third over of the innings, yeah. Asif and Amir are going to be bowling. Amir is to bowl the first over (meaning he will also bowl the third), yeah?"
Just as promised, Amir overstepped. Ian Botham in the commentary box immediately spotted the oddity. "You don't see that (no-ball) too often with bowlers who play two forms of the game."
And the man who was doing online commentary for the BBC punched in: "Dirty great no-ball from Amir, that was fully two feet over."u00a0
It's funny how a no-ball has gained notoriety in less than two weeks. First it was Suraj Randiv's illegitimate delivery which denied Virender Sehwag a century in Sri Lanka. Now, it's the Pakistanis.
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