Pietersen, who was among the England team that played the infamous Test, wrote in his latest column for a London-based daily that spot-fixers should be banned for life and that they should not be given a second chance.
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“I tend to disagree a little bit because I’ve always felt that Pakistan has a bad history of fixing and all that kind of stuff”, said Raja, a member of the MCC World Cricket Committee which met at Lord’s on Tuesday. I see this as the start of a campaign to start pressuring Amir.
The day we learnt about the spot-fix at Lord’s in 2010, when it emerged that Amir and Mohammad Asif had deliberately bowled no balls in exchange for money and in collusion with their captain, Salman Butt, was awful.
However, Swann doesn’t find that as ground to allow a tainted cricketer return to the game.
“I have two older brothers and one younger brother”, Shah said in English. ‘I’ve not faced him before and I’m looking forward to that challenge and seeing how I go against him in this series.
Their all-time leading wicket-taker will be a very signifcant absentee, should his stress fracture of the shoulder blade in his bowling arm keep him out for long.
He has taken 76 wickets in his 12 Tests – a sensational rate which, if theoretically sustained, would give him more wickets per Test than any other bowler of the last hundred years.
Stuart Broad will lead the bowling attack when the Lord’s Test begins next week and he knows plenty about Ball’s capabilities having spent time up close with the 25-year-old at Nottinghamshire.
“He was with us a year ago in the Ashes when he was injured and in Durban during the winter, when we beat South Africa”.
“The first couple of days were very hard for me”.
“It is going to make great viewing”.
His performances, though, have been monitored by selectors for a while, and he spent time in the winter with the England Lions – but he did not automatically assume a Test call would follow.
He was recalled to the Test side last week for the first time in just over a year on the back of a hundred for Yorkshire against Middlesex at Scarborough. Their batting line-up has also proved over the past few years how talented they are, with the experienced heads of Younis and Misbah-ul-Haq forming a middle-order partnership of the highest order. “They got wickets with lbws and bowleds so it will be about adjusting as quickly as possible”.
“I have said it before, but everybody is supportive of Mohammad Amir, no one is reluctant”.
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Bayliss believes any side’s best batsman should bat at three and Root has become such a key player in this England team that England want him now to carve out a long-term future in what has become a problem position.
