From pitch to screen: Banned pacer Amir offered 'hero's role' in Pak movie

Pakistani pace express Mohammad Amir has reportedly revealed that he has been offered the hero's role in a movie and has decided to do it as the cricketer struggles to earn his bread and butter while serving a five-year ban for spot-fixing.

Amir, who was rated as one of the best young talents in world cricket, fell from grace in the Lord's Test against England in 2010 for being involved in match-fixing. The pace bowler was hit with a five-year ban from cricket after he was caught in a tabloid newspaper sting along with captain Salman Butt and pace partner Mohammad Asif agreeing to bowl no balls to order.

Amir's ban is due to end in September 2015, when the pacer said he would go back to the sport, The Dawn reported.

Amir said that he has been offered the hero's role in a Pakistan film and has decided to take this opportunity but once his ban is lifted his first priority would be cricket. He added that he took the role in 'Blind Love', offered to him by Pakistani director Faisal Bukhari, because he was hard up.

The pacer said that he has not played cricket, which was his bread and butter, for four years now, so he had to find ways and means to earn and this opportunity has come as a blessing.

Amir's rise to stardom collapsed dramatically with the spot-fixing scandal during the fourth and final Test at Lord's, which led to jail terms for him, Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) last year launched a campaign to get relaxation on some of the conditions of Amir's ban and subsequently the International Cricket Council formed a committee to look into the request and in October this year will review its code of conduct through which the pacer and his fellows were banned.

Asif is also due to start shooting an Indian-Pakistani joint production 'India mein Lahore' ('Lahore in India'), the report added.