LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), after showing a soft corner for tainted pacer Mohammad Amir on Thursday, also showed flexibility on his other two teammates involved in the infamous 2010 spot-fixing scam — paceman Mohammad Asif and opener Salman Butt — to allow them to play for their departmental team Wapda in next month’s National One-day Cup.

The PCB on Friday, accepting a proposal from Wapda Chairman, officially allowed Salman and Asif to represent their department teams in the One-day Cup which means they have equal chances to perform and impress the selectors to get back their places in the national team.

Amir is already playing domestic cricket after he got some early relaxation from the ICC and the PCB due to his fine cooperation with the anti-corruption authorities and also on grounds that the 2010 scam was his first offence, committed at a tender age of 17.

During the past five years when the tainted trio served their respective bans imposed by the ICC for their role in the spot-fixing saga, Pakistan tried nearly 50 players at the international level in the three formats — Tests, ODIs and T20s — but only a few could retain their place in the national team while the rest failed to come up to the expectations due to their inconsistent show at the top level.

It is for this reason, perhaps, that the PCB has been compelled to review its tough stance on the tainted trio and have decided to allow them to return to domestic cricket soon after their bans expired last September. Pakistan’s poor showing in the ODIs and in the T20I of late could also have prompted the Board to allow the three players back into domestic cricket with one eye on the World T20, scheduled to be held in India next year in March.

During the time that Amir, Asif and Salman were serving their ICC bans, the cricketers who were awarded a Pakistan cap but failed to retain their places in the team include Shahzaib Hasan, Umar Amin, Zulqarnain Haider, Hammad Azam, Mohammad Salman, Tanvir Ahmed, Usman Salahuddin, Nasir Jamshed, Bilawal Bhatti, Aizaz Cheema, Sharjeel Khan, Mohammad Talha, Raza Hasan, Saad Nasim, Sami Aslam, Babar Azam, Awais Zia, Rameez Raja, Shakeel Ansar, Usman Khan, Mukhtar Ahmed and Nouman Anwar.

It is also a fact that Pakistan’s fast bowling department today, despite the presence of Wahab Riaz, Rahat Ali, Imran Khan, Ehsan Adil, Anwar Ali and Mohammad Irfan, is lacking a spearhead or a fearsome strike bowler which makes a definite case for Amir’s return to the national team’s ranks.

Among the current lot, players like Ahmed Shehzad, Umar Akmal, Shan Masood, Sohaib Maqsood, Asad Shafiq, Junaid Khan, Azhar Ali and a few others are always in the reckoning for the national teams, but it is also a fact that most of these players not been able to join the top-ranked players in the game, mainly due to their inconsistent show at the international level over the years.

However, the three players who have done outstandingly well for Pakistan of late are leg-spinner Yasir Shah, seasoned batsman Younis Khan and the talented wicket-keeper batsman Sarfraz Ahmed. Owing to their fine and consistent performances, the three have also been named in the ICC World XI of the Year this week.

Meanwhile, talking to Dawn Salman vowed that he would try to make the most of the opportunity given by the PCB to do his best at the domestic level and stage a comeback in the national team.

“First of all, I must thank the Almighty Allah for helping me a lot to come out of the crisis that plagued my career as those were very testing times for me and my family,” said Salman who was the captain of Pakistan team during the 2010 tour of England when the spot-fixing scam rocked the cricketing world.

“I am also thankful to the PCB for giving me a chance to once again prove my mettle in the National One-day Cup. I am quite fit and I have been travelling with Wapda team in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy matches also,” he said.

While the PCB had initially asked Wapda not to include Salman and Asif in their side for domestic season, a PCB official told Dawn that the Wapda chairman himself made a request to the Board to allow both the cricketers to play for their departmental team since they have completed their rehab programme.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2015