KARACHI: Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Amir announced his retirement from Test cricket on Friday to concentrate on the limited-overs game, nine years after a spot-fixing ban halted his burgeoning career.
The 27-year-old, regarded as one of the best left-arm pacers after countryman Wasim Akram, said he wants to move away from the traditional format.
“It has been an honor to represent Pakistan in the pinnacle and traditional format of the game,” Amir is quoted as saying in a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) release.
“I, however, have decided to move away from the longer version so I can concentrate on white ball cricket.”
Amir is currently in England where he is signed to play for Essex in the English season.
Amir made an impressive entry into international cricket as a 17-year-old, taking six wickets in his debut Test against Sri Lanka at Galle in 2009.
The following year, he was instrumental on a tour in England, helping Pakistan to level a two-match neutral-venue series against Australia with seven wickets in the Leeds Test.
He took 20 wickets in four Tests against England but it culminated in a shocking spot-fixing saga unearthed by the now-defunct tabloid News of the World.
Amir, along with then Test captain Salman Butt and new-ball partner Mohammad Asif, was charged for illegally taking money in return for delivering deliberate no-balls in the Lord’s Test.
All three were banned for a minimum of five years and were also jailed by a UK court.
Amir returned to play for Pakistan again in 2016 but the other two failed in their bids to resume their international careers.
Overall, Amir took 119 wickets in 36 Tests, the last of which was against South Africa earlier this year. His best bowling returns — six for 44 — were against the West Indies in Kingston in April 2017.
Pakistan fast bowler Amir retires from Test cricket
Pakistan fast bowler Amir retires from Test cricket
- He made an impressive entry into international cricket as a 17-year-old, taking six wickets in his debut Test against Sri Lanka
- Mohammad Amir was banned for spot-fixing in 2010
Pakistan opposition to continue protest over ex-PM Khan’s health amid conflicting reports
- Pakistan’s government insists that the ex-premier’s eye condition has improved
- Khan’s personal doctor says briefed on his condition but cannot confirm veracity
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s opposition alliance on Monday vowed to continue their protest sit-in at parliament and demanded “clarity” over the health of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, following conflicting medical reports about his eye condition.
The 73-year-old former cricket star-turned-politician has been held at the high-security Adiala prison in Rawalpindi since 2023. Concerns arose about his health last week when a court-appointed lawyer, Barrister Salman Safdar, was asked to visit Khan at the jail to assess his living conditions. Safdar reported that Khan had suffered “severe vision loss” in his right eye due to central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO), leaving him with just 15 percent sight in the affected eye.
On Sunday, a team of doctors from various hospitals visited the prison to examine Khan’s eye condition, according to the Adiala jail superintendent, who later submitted his report in the court. On Monday, a Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice Yahya Afridi observed that based on reports from the prison authorities and the amicus curiae, Khan’s “living conditions in jail do not presently exhibit any perverse aspects.” It noted that Khan had “generally expressed satisfaction with the prevailing conditions of his confinement” and had not sought facilities beyond the existing level of care.
Having carefully perused both reports in detail, the bench observed that their general contents and the overall picture emerging therefrom are largely consistent. The opposition alliance, which continued to stage its sit-in for a fourth consecutive day on Monday, held a meeting at the parliament building on Monday evening to deliberate on the emerging situation and discuss their future course of action.
“The sit-in will continue till there is clarity on the matter of [Khan's] health,” Sher Ali Arbab, a lawmaker from Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party who has been participating in the sit-in, told Arab News, adding that PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan and Opposition Leader in Senate Raja Nasir Abbas had briefed them about their meeting with doctors who had visited Khan on Sunday.
Speaking to reporters outside parliament, Gohar said the doctors had informed them that Khan’s condition had improved.
“They said, 'There has been a significant and satisfactory improvement.' With that satisfactory improvement, we also felt satisfied,” he said, noting that the macular thickness in Khan’s eye had reportedly dropped from 550 to 300 microns, a sign of subsiding swelling.
Gohar said the party did not want to politicize Khan’s health.
“We are not doctors, nor is this our field,” he said, noting that Khan’s personal physician in Lahore, Dr. Aasim Yusuf, and his eye specialist Dr. Khurram Mirza had also sought input from the Islamabad-based medical team.
“Our doctors also expressed satisfaction over the report.”
CONFLICTING ACCOUNTS
Despite Gohar’s cautious optimism, Khan’s personal physician, Dr. Yusuf, issued a video message on Monday, saying he could neither “confirm nor deny the veracity” of the government’s claims.
“Because I have not seen him myself and have not been able to participate in his care... I’m unable to confirm what we have been told,” Yusuf said.
He appealed to authorities to grant him or fellow physician, Dr. Faisal Sultan, immediate access to Khan, arguing that the ex-premier should be moved to Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad for specialist care.
Speaking to Arab News, PTI’s central information secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram said Khan’s sister and their cousin, Dr. Nausherwan Burki, will speak to media on Tuesday to express their views about the situation.
The government insists that Khan’s condition has improved.
“His eye [condition] has improved and is better than before,” State Minister Talal Chaudhry told the media in a brief interaction on Monday.
“The Supreme Court of Pakistan is involved, and doctors are involved. What medicine he receives, whether he needs to be hospitalized or sent home, these decisions are made by doctors. Neither lawyers nor any political party will decide this.”
