Pakistan’s legendary former pacer Shoaib Akhtar, while speaking on PTV Sports on Monday, stated that every management would not back pacer Mohammad Amir just as he was backed by former head coach Mickey Arthur.
The 45-year-old believed that Amir needed to grow up while citing veteran all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez as an example the pacer should have followed.
“Sometimes you have good days and sometimes you have bad days. Amir should have realised that papa Mickey Arthur will not always be there to safeguard him. Sometimes you have to grow up. I am saying this for Amir. Sometimes you have to grow up. You don’t let it go but you mature enough to realise that the management is not according to my wishes, now I have to raise my performance and level of hard work. The management was also against Hafeez. What did Hafeez do that was different? He just made runs and nothing else. He didn’t give the management an envelope full of cash. Amir should have learned from Hafeez,” Akhtar said.
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The former pacer stated that the former chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Najam Sethi had a massive role in bringing Amir back into the national team.
“Najam Sethi had a big role in bringing Mohammad Amir back. Respect the fact that Najam Sethi and the board worked very hard in bringing him back. It was a very hard process. This is a favor the PCB did for Amir. Amir won some crucial matches for Pakistan in the Champions Trophy which includes the final. After that his performances deteriorated, a stance of Misbah which is right. Misbah is not in the wrong here. He is also right when he says that Amir’s pace has gone down. There is nothing wrong with that assessment,” he said.
Akhtar believed that the team management had given ample chances to Amir before his eventual exclusion from the side.
“I am all for Amir right now. I have said that they should play him. But he has to understand this point. Until I was fit and had pace, I didn’t care who was in charge of the board and who wasn’t. I don’t care regardless. But when you have pace and fitness then, you know, you will be in the team regardless and your focus is completely different. Now when Misbah is talking about this issue, he is speaking genuinely and he is right,” he said.
“We should also not forget that Misbah, Waqar and the management tried to play Amir at every opportunity they could find. They kept giving him chances. This grievance of Amir that he hasn’t gotten chances is wrong that he didn’t receive chances. His performances had gone down,” he concluded.