Former Pakistan pacer Mohammad Amir stated that he was not getting the respect of the team management which made him call time on his international career.
Mohammad Amir announced his retirement from international cricket, last year. The pacer cited that he was not able to handle the mental torture that was subjected to him by the current Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) management and some former Pakistan players.
Talking about the same, Mohammad Amir said that it wasn’t easy for him to retire from playing international cricket for Pakistan. He hoped that youngsters don’t get to face what he did and sacrifice their career as he did.
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“Retiring from playing for your beloved country isn’t an easy step to take. I thought a lot about this decision, I spoke to those close to me and only then did I reach this decision. If I go into all of the details and re-open all those chapters then it will get very ugly.
“I hope that our players, especially the youngsters in future don’t have to face what I had to face as I don’t want our younger players to get disheartened and have to sacrifice their careers as I did,” Mohammad Amir said.
Amir said that his self-respect matter the most to him and he didn’t get the respect he deserved which made him take retirement. He added that he’ll look to focus on his career forward and is happy with his life.
“What matters most to me is respect and I felt that I wasn’t getting the respect I deserved and that’s why I decided to retire. The people in charge of Pakistan cricket have their job to do, they have their responsibilities and have their decisions to make, and I have my career to continue and look forward to, so we all should move on, as right now I am happy with my life,” he said.
Amir revealed that he was suffering from mental pressure as there were things that were out of his control. He added that if management doesn’t give any respect to players it will affect them.
“Yes, I was suffering from mental pressure, and I would be very surprised if I was the only one who has gone through this. Some players are too frightened to do anything about it or speak up about it because there are a lot of things that are outside the control of players. If the team management isn’t giving a player any respect, then that is going to affect the player,” he said.
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Mohammad Amir further remarked there was a lot of communication gap between him and Team management which affected him and his mental health.
“When there is a communication gap between the team management and the players then things will head in the wrong direction. There was a big communication gap between the management and me, and this was very badly handled and affected me and my mental health,” he concluded.
Mohammad Amir represented Pakistan in 36 Tests and took 119 wickets at an average of 30.47 and strike rate of 64. The left-arm pacer also played 61 ODIs and 50 T20Is in which he returned with 81 and 59 wickets respectively.
(NEWS 18 inputs)
