Can Mohammad Amir play IPL?

13th may, 2021

Mohammad Amir who retired from all forms of international cricket earlier this year is currently living in the UK with his family. Amir retired at the early age of 28 stating the problem with the Pakistan cricket management but he still has plenty of cricket left behind him. After his retirement, he has publicly shown his willingness to play competitive cricket all around the world. But the question is can he participate in the IPL which is undoubtedly the best cricket league in the world and is one of the top sporting leagues.

As we all know Pakistani Cricketer cannot participate in IPL courtesy of political conflict between India and Pakistan, Mohammed Amir still can feature in IPL but only if he manages to get British citizenship. He is currently in the UK and there is a high possibility that he will apply for British citizenship sooner or later. Once this happens, the doors will be wide open for him to Play in IPL. The left-handed bowler had a dream start to his career but his career cut short after the spot-fixing scandal in 2010. It has been a roller coaster ride as he had seen lots of ups and downs in his more than 10 years long International career, be it involving in match-fixing and getting banned for 5 years, making a strong comeback after return, and again retiring at an early age due to some disputes with a coach and the management.

The Left-handed Pakistani bowler has 59 wickets from 50 T20Is with a decent economy of 7.02 at an average o 21.41. Similarly, in ODIs and Tests, he has taken 81 and 119 wickets respectively It will be interesting to see if any IPL franchise is willing to pick him or not in the auction, once he becomes eligible.

But it will not be the first time any Pakistani cricketer playing IPL since 2008 when the IPL governing board decided to block the Pakistan cricketer’s participation after political tension between two teams mainly because of the Mumbai Attack. Azhar Mahood played for Kings XI Punjab(Now Punjab Kings) from 2012–2015 after he got a British passport which made him eligible to feature in the Auction as an English player. In 23 IPL matches, he picked 29 wickets at eco. of 7.81 and producing 388 runs that included 2 fifties.

Originally published at https://cricketaddictorsassociation.blogspot.com on May 13, 2021.