Cricket fever has been a household thing for everybody I've seen during my childhood and teenage times. It was the same for Asians particularly in those days. It was the mid 90s when I stopped watching cricket matches or the you can say the frequency was not the same again after that. One of the biggest reasons was the sudden exit of Wasim Akram from the do or die quarter final against India that Pakistan lost and it was obvious. Ata Ur Rehman was the replacement. So, even on paper, India became the favorite team. Sun Tzu rightly said:
The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.
I'm peace lover and never supported hate between India and Pakistan and my stance is still the same. India has produced one of the finest cricketers and I'm fan of some of them like M.S. Dhoni is at top of the list. So, I want to make it clear that it's not about Indian cricket team or the masses. I blame the big players in the background who play the dirty game and thus corrupt the game of cricket. Perfection does not exist and this applies to the game of cricket as well. The game can't be 100% corruption free. However, we still can try to keep it clean as much as possible. Saeed Anwar has been my most favorite batsman in cricket and he did not play 1992 world cup. So is the case of Waqar Younis who was the fastest bowler in cricket at that time. I don't need to mention how much each and every fan of the world wanted to see the best from both the countries in quarter final back in 1996 and just at midnight, the players in the background played the dirty game. An unfair game definitely makes the audience disappointed.
There is lot that I want to say but I want to keep it short. So, fast forward....a bowler joins Pakistani team and gets the attention of the world by getting wicket on the very first ball in a test match against NZ and he was just 17 years old. Yes, I'm talking about Mohammad Amir. Former Pakistan Cricket Captain Imran Khan once said Mohammad Amir was way ahead Wasim Akram at that age.
Check this fiery spell of Amir against Aussies:
Source: YouTube
The saddest part is this gem fell prey to the dirty game and got banned with another gem Muhammad Asif and Salman Butt. All three collectively had made the Pakistani team the best for that world cup tournament. The timing says it all and who got benefited the most from the exclusion is also another good point for the researchers on this topic.
Amir could never get his fire back because he could never come out of the pressure of what he'd done and gone through and that's my pure opinion. Now, we are at the verge of another world cup and if Mohammad Amir does not get a chance to participate in it, his international cricket is for sure over. I'm not interested in records nor I want to talk about the pride of individual countries in this regard. I just want to talk about the deprivation of the cricket lovers from great and memorable cricket display throughout all these years and the reason is obvious. Amir aims at living in UK and playing county cricket and I think it's a good decision. Whether he gets a chance to play in the upcoming world cup or not, we've missed the opportunity of some of the greatest bowling display from him and unfortunately that can't be undone.
Cricket has got infiltrated by betting. Wasim Akram, without a doubt is the best fast bowler cricket has ever produced and Mohammad Amir was way ahead of him. We lost it. Now the cricket franchises have become money making machines and machines lack emotions.