After 3 for 36 in 11 overs in a warm-up match against Somerset in Taunton, BBC ran a headline in their mobile service: ‘Spot-fixer Amir Takes Three Wickets on Return’. Many Cricketers and Cricket pundits have found BBC’s ‘spot-fixer’ jibe at Mohammad Amir in poor taste. The young Pakistani pacer, who was banned from international cricket for five years for spot-fixing a Test match at Lord’s in 2010, is making a return to Test cricket with a series against England.
Mohammad Amir's back, and he looked lethal against Somerset. How will he get on against @englandcricket?https://t.co/5QCox9O1xG
— County Championship (@CountyChamp) July 5, 2016
Former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar is anguish with the overall saga and wrote in his column for ABPLive: “I think it was in poor taste. I cannot understand that after Amir has gone through his share of punishments and turmoil why would you like to stereotype him as ‘spot-fixer’.
“Media as an important stakeholder should help him move on as well rather than dumping him in the darkness of his forgetful past… the idea was to kill the sin and not the sinner.”
The BBC headline angered England Cricketer Ravi Bopara too, who is Amir’s teammate in Pakistan Super League team, Karachi Kings.
The guy performs well and that's the best headline BBC sport could come up with? Poor from BBC sport. #muppets pic.twitter.com/FTGWvuZ4bP
— Ravi Bopara (@ravibopara) July 4, 2016
Wisden India also took offence to the BBC’s remark and wrote, “BBC Sport picking on Mohammad Amir is just taking two-facedness to an extreme.”
England are surely playing mind games with Amir, whose prodigious swing tormented them back in 2010.
English captain Alastair Cook has already put pressure on Pakistan by saying, “there will be a reaction” when Amir returns to the scene of the crime at Lord’s next week.
The Pakistan versus England series is really hotting up and the BBC has added some extra spice in it.