Dubai: Pakistan fast bowling legend Shoaib Akhtar has backed disgraced trio Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir to return to the Pakistan national team after having served five-year bans for spot-fixing.
The players were found guilty of conspiring to bowl no-balls during a 2010 Test against England at Lord’s in London and received five-year bans from the sport and varying prison sentences.
Their bans expire on September 1 but, while they can immediately return to first and second division club cricket from September 2, they can’t return to first class or international cricket until February 28, 2016, after having completed a six-month rehabilitation programme.
After that, however, Akhtar sees no reason why the shamed cricketers can’t don the green shirt again.
“People deserve a second chance and, as a human, I don’t want to give up on another human being,” said Akhtar, 40, who was in Dubai on Thursday to promote the Sprite Cricket Stars tournament, where teams of labourers are competing locally for Dh100,000 prize money.
“They have made a mistake and have served their sentence so I can forgive them. I hope they have learnt their lesson, and now I really want them to go out there and prove once again that they are good people.”
Akhtar, who was dubbed the Rawalpindi Express as he took more than 400 international wickets in a 14-year career from 1997 to 2011, said the trio would enhance the current Pakistan squad because they have so much to prove.
“They are indebted to Pakistan and every day they play for their country they will carry that burden until the minute they retire,” he said. “They have done something wrong, very wrong, but now to wash that one off they will go out and play at their optimum and bring glory back to Pakistan. That way people will forgive and forget.
“There will be a million judging eyes and stigma upon them, it’s not going to go away, so they have to try and make it fade away.”
Akhtar said the trio would be fully exhonerated if they could win next year’s ICC Twenty20 World Cup in India.
“The perfect apology for me would be if they went on and won the T20 World Cup. If they want to apologise don’t say it verbally, bring the World Cup back from India, or perform at the best of your ability and bring laurels back to Pakistan, and we will forgive you.”
Asked if the trio still had what it takes to make the Pakistan set-up, Akhtar replied: “Age is no factor nowadays depending on how you train.
“Asif has a good three years left in him, Amir could have got to 250 or 300 wickets if it wasn’t for the ban. I really want him to grow up, mature and get serious help, get a serious shrink, and serious advisors, and go out to perform to the best of his ability.
“Amir has six or seven years to go out and have a bold time for Pakistan.”
