Ban too long

ISLAMABAD: Mohammad Amir’s mentor urged the International Cricket Council on Thursday to review the fast bowler’s five-year ban for spot-fixing. Asif Bajwa, who helped mould Amir from a village bowler into a world class left-arm paceman, said the 19-year-old had admitted his mistake and should not be deprived of cricket until 2015. Amir blamed former captain Salman Butt for manipulating him into bowling two deliberate no-balls against England that led to his playing ban and three months in jail. In an interview last week, Amir said he had been receiving great support from his family and “especially my sir (Bajwa)”. Amir will still only be 23 when his current ban expires, but Bajwa wants to see his student back in international cricket by next year. “Five years is too long a period,” Bajwa told The Associated Press. “He is not going into an appeal in the Court of Arbitration for Sport, he has admitted his mistake and he has already served nearly two years of his punishment. “I am quite confident that ICC will review its decision of a five-year ban.” However, ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said that Amir should focus on his rehabilitation, not on reducing the ban. “Part of the sanction he received from the ICC tribunal was to educate himself and for him to educate others,” Lorgat said. “So let us do all the necessary building blocks before we get to a point where anyone could ask, ‘Does he now deserve a review?”’ Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Zaka Ashraf has promised to conduct a rehabilation program for Amir. The five-year ban starts from Sept. 2010 and will run until Sept. 2015. Bajwa spotted Amir as an 11-year-old boy in a village nearly 15 kilometers (9.32 miles) from Rawalpindi _ a city where former test fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar learned his cricket. Amir said he regarded Bajwa as “a father.” “I respect him and always will for playing a huge role in my life,” he said. “I will never forget this and even now in this difficult period when lots of people desert you, he has continued to support me from the first day until now in exactly the same way as before.” Amir stayed in Bajwa’s cricket academy for nearly five years before he was selected in Pakistan’s under-19 team. While some former test cricketers in Pakistan have questioned Amir’s allegations against Butt, the leftarm fast bowler got support from India’s former test captain Rahul Dravid. “Amir’s is a superb player and when he has served his ban, I’d hope he’d be able to come back,” Dravid said. “We all want him to come back at some stage and I don’t know whether that’s … it’s going to be a challenge. I hope he can do it; it would be great if he can.”]]>