'Banned' Pak fast bowler Mohamamd Amir says 'dying to return to cricket'

Banned Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Amir has expressed hope that he would get an early opportunity to revive his international cricket career which ended in August 2010 because of a nasty spot-fixing scandal.

According to the Dawn, Amir, still only 21, was banned by the International Cricket Council (ICC) tribunal in February 2011 for five years in the spot-fixing scandal along with the then Pakistan skipper Salman Butt and fellow paceman Mohammad Asif after they were found guilty of bowling deliberate no-balls in return for money during the fourth and final Test against England at Lord's.

Salman received a 10-year ban while the tribunal headed by Michael Beloff banned Asif for seven years following comprehensive investigations, the report said,

The trio were also handed different jail sentences in November that same year along with their British agent Mazhar Majeed, the report added.

Amir, who pleaded guilty to involvement in the scam for shadowy South Asian betting rings, served half of a six-month jail sentence at the Portland Yong Offenders Institution in Dorset, the report further said.

Meanwhile, he said that not playing the game he loved so much was very frustrating but it was purely because of his own undoing that his life was miserable, adding that his family had also suffered a lot because of him.

Amir said that he believes God always gives everyone a second chance to rectify whatever wrong they have done in life, adding that his biggest desire was to come back and play cricket.

Billed as the greatest fast-bowling find in Pakistan since the legendary Wasim Akram in the mid 1980s, Amir confessed that the biggest lesson he had learnt from the scandal was to take extreme caution while making friends, according to the report.