'The former Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Amir is set to join Derbyshire as a local player next season.
Amir, 31, retired from international cricket in 2020 and is seeking British citizenship – his wife is a British citizen – ahead of signing a deal with Derbyshire.
Amir earned infamy in 2010 as an 18-year-old when he was one of two bowlers (the other being the more experienced Mohammad Asif) to deliberately bowl no-balls during a Test tour of England.
That led to Amir being banned for five years by the International Cricket Council and serving half of a six-month custodial sentence in young offenders institutes in Feltham and Dorset. Asif and the captain Salman Butt were also jailed and handed bans by the ICC.
Amir returned to international cricket in 2016, but retired during the pandemic. Since, he has been a travelling freelancer, playing in Pakistan, England, Bangladesh and the Caribbean. At times, he was a world-class player in all three formats, picking up 259 wickets for Pakistan, including 119 in Tests.
Amir has experience of playing county cricket, mainly for Essex, but also Gloucestershire. He also played the first season of the Hundred for Lord’s-based London Spirit. If he becomes a British citizen, he would be able to play in the Hundred as a local, too.
Derbyshire have an unusual link with Pakistan as their head coach, Mickey Arthur, is also director of cricket for Pakistan, mainly operating remotely in the English season. South African Arthur has been full-time head coach of four countries, including Pakistan when Amir was a key member of their attack been 2016 and 2019.
Arthur is looking to rebuild Derbyshire, who regularly find themselves in the lower reaches of the County Championship. He has signed Pat Brown from Worcestershire and is also thought to be keen on picking up the former England all-rounder Samit Patel from Nottinghamshire. However, Derbyshire could lose their captain Leus du Plooy, whose suitors include Middlesex.'
All very interesting! Amir made mistakes as a young man, but has paid for them and is a very good cricketer.
Were he to play as a local, that is a serious statement of intent and would allow overseas recruitment too.
Patel is interesting too. He probably has a couple of good years in him and, although no athlete, is a very good cricketer who could and should play more than T20, which is all he gets at Trent Bridge.
Interesting. Very interesting!
But let's see what develops
Thanks to Dean for alerting me to this story.
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If he signs, if he is selected. Paper talk right now. Pakistan players aren't regular IPL picks, the other compy may or may not continue. 12 months is a long time and we must wait and see.
ReplyDeleteBut I suspect he will do better than Lakmal IF we sort the wickets at Derby. Other counties manage it!
Fingers crossed the club can get both of these signings over the finish line. It would be great news.
ReplyDeleteStrike bowler and first choice spinner roles would be sorted. I just hope a larger club doesn’t try to scupper the deals.
It would leave the two overseas roles for either another opener, du Plooy’s middle order replacement or another strike bowler/spinner.
Gareth
Pakistani players have been excluded from the IPL since the inaugural season.
ReplyDeleteInteresting article, let's see what happens. Samit has always been a thorn in our side when playing for Notts, so it would be useful to have him on board!
*jasper
ReplyDeleteSheltering from the rain yesterday morning I saw Mickey Arthur walk by several times armed with notebooks and other things, looking particularly industrious. Plans must be afoot!
ReplyDeleteMohammad Amir would be an excellent signing, and an added bonus that he wouldn’t be classed as an overseas player. He would bring more than useful experience to the bowling attack across all formats (franchise contracts permitting, of course).
Former Pakistan pacer Mahammad Amir is likely to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL), once he will get his Biritsh passport in 2024.
ReplyDeleteThe left-arm pacer, is settled in the United Kingdom since 2020 and in an interview spoke on his future.
“First, I will not play for England. I have played for Pakistan. Second (talking of IPL), there is one more year to go,” he told ARY news.
“What will be the scenario at that time….I always say that I go step by step.
“We don’t know what will happen tomorrow and I start thinking about playing IPL in 2024.”
A little bit detective work and you can see a common link. Pat Brown agent is the same agent for Amir and Patel. I don’t think that is coincidence
ReplyDeleteIf this comes to pass then recruitment for next season certainly looks to be improving the side. So far I'd consider:
ReplyDeleteLloyd would be a significant upgrade on Godleman at the top of the order where we've missed the additional option. Alternatively though if the plan is for he or Reece to replace du Plooy at 5 then that's not as convincing but I'd hope we'd consider a gun overseas bat for that job.
Brown looks likely to be like for like for Scrimshaw who I imagine is off and given his England caps I don't think we could expect better.
Amir would be a big upgrade on Lakmal in our bowling attack whilst simultaneously freeing up an overseas slot to strengthen elsewhere.
All sounds positive but the same Telegraph report reports the potential / likely departure of du Plooy - a classic case of one step forward and one step back (as has been consistently the case over the last few years)
ReplyDeleteMy humble view is more importantly than any new signings, we need to become more attractive as a 'Project' in the making which might hopefully prevent us losing our better talent and undermining what Arthur is trying to achieve. Hopefully the Amir business will start this ball rolling.
I report it as it is in the public domain, from a newspaper usually accurate from a cricket perspective - they were first with Brown, Tongue and Pennington moving, as well as Godleman 'falling out' at Derbyshire
ReplyDeleteBut the time for excitement is when announced by the club. I don't think we will ever match Test ground counties, and one club men like Madsen are rare. But change is needed and looks on the way!
MA is keen to turn us into the 'county of choice' and it's a laudable aim. For the second successive season it doesn't seem to be the case if you are Derbyshire's captain! Let's hope Lloyd bucks that trend next season.
ReplyDeleteAs for Amir, I am sure he would want to play in the IPL (who wouldn't) but it will be interesting once he qualifies as British, whether the IPL franchises will consider him as such. They ought to, and he will certainly hope so.
Morning Peakfan, what a signing that would be. I remember we were fortunate to be at the Oval for the World Trophy Final in 2017. Amir got three early Indian wickets, namely Sharma, Dhawan and Mr Kohli, possibly the best bit of opening bowling in a final and won Pakistan the game. Fingers crossed. Clay Cross Mark
ReplyDeleteBy all accounts, Amir would be a good signing. I'm not so sure about Patel, though. While he's an excellent player, he's 38. I feel we should be looking to build a team for the long-term, which means nurturing and developing younger players.
ReplyDeleteThis is why I'm not a fan of bringing in loanees for a couple of games or so. I'd rather see some of our less experienced players given opportunities, as this is a way of investing in the future.
am dubious over the Patel link. If they share an agent, it could well be something to encourage a better new contract from Nottinghamshire. They won't want Samit playing his trade at Derbyshire, so it may force their hand a little.
DeleteTake the point that at 38 he isn't in the first flush of youth but he is younger than Madsen and still a good player.
**plying, darned auto correct!
DeleteLeus du plooy has gone to Middlesex according to the club website. A big loss.
ReplyDeleteThere's a VERY big "if" to this story, in that he is hoping to get UK citizenship rather than has already got it. And isn't there some kind of "good character" test for citizenship?--which might pose problems given that he's served a prison sentence in the UK.
ReplyDeleteBut in general--and stop me if you think you've heard this one before PF, as the man said!--this is the kind of county signing (more than Lloyd...:-) which makes me want to tear my hair out. A 32-year-old has-been with a very middling test record and what appears from afar to be a fairly "challenging" attitude, who had one year-long purple patch almost fifteen years before he starts playing county cricket, who's now a jobbing T20 player (not an especially good one if his record at London Spirit is anything to go by), who won't have played a 50-over game for almost five years and appears to have bowled a grand total of 67 overs in red-ball cricket in over five years. And he won't be cheap--I imagine he'd be the replacement for Godleman (or worse) in salary terms.
I suspect he'd say that his middling international record was the result of lack of support from the PCB. But he seems to me to have a record of rather self-absorbed behaviour, excuse-making and an ability to fall out with people. I suspect Arthur will be thinking that he can bring the best out of him--but he didn't as an international player.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if he struggles to get on the pitch after the first month or so--Derbys fans may soon be yearning for the days of the always-available Lakmal!--and if he does, may struggle to have much effect, especially in the longer forms. And by signing him, they're keeping away much younger, homegrown (English if not Derbyshire) talent: talented white-ball bowlers who may yet develop into good red-ball players (Brown, Scrimshaw if he's still there), a raw academy product (Potts) or a seamer who was being talked up something chronic by Arthur only a year ago (Aitchison).
I'm not convinced at all by the "county of choice" argument either. OK, Derbyshire don't have as much money as some counties, but Leics and Sussex have signed between them four batters who've represented top three countries this year, while Northants, Kent and Worcs have all just signed an Indian international; Derbyshire get a Pakistan never-quite-made it, a past-his-best Sri Lankan seamer and a raw young batter who's struggled to get into the national side. Derbyshire get Matt Lamb and David Lloyd, Northants get David Willey and Leics manage to hold onto Rehan Ahmed. There seems to be a difference--and I'm not sure it's explainable only by money, and it doesn't scream "county of choice" to me.
Amir would have been a great signing when Essex signed him six years ago. Now he could easily be more de Grandhomme than Simon Harmer.
Dave