Contrary to reports in British and Pakistani media, talented Pakistan paceman Mohammad Amir will get a UK visa by next week, sources said, giving valid reasons for the release after Pakistan Cricket Board contacted the UK High Commission and immigration officials.
“Amir will get the visa next week,” said a source. “His case was different from Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif as he was not deported. Amir pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months in a rehab center so that has eased his case. He also received worldwide sympathy for being a teenager and for his confession.”
In 2010 Amir, along with then Test captain Salman Butt and new-ball partner Mohammad Asif was banned for five years by the anti-corruption tribunal of the International Cricket Council.
All three were charged for arranging deliberate no-balls in return for money during Pakistan’s fourth and final Test against England at Lord’s in August 2010.
The players along with their agent Mazhar Majeed were also sentenced by a UK court, where Amir pleaded guilty. Butt was sentenced to 32 months and Asif to 30.
Amir was finally released in February 2012 from Portland Young Offenders Institution in Dorset after serving half of a six-month sentence.
On his release, he had a visa to stay in England until the end of March 2012 and there was no suggestion that he risks the threat of deportation.
After ICC amended its code of anti-corruption, Amir was allowed to play domestic cricket, six months before the ban on the three players was to end, in September 2015.
While Butt and Asif will not get UK visas under a regulation on the UK Home Office website that states: “If a person has been sentenced to a period of between 12 months and less than 4 years imprisonment, the ECO [Entry Clearance Officer] must refuse the application until 10 years has passed since the end of the sentence.”
“Since Amir’s case was different he can get a visa by August 2016 and that can be reduced by one month, so that he can go to England by July this year,” said sources.
“When immigration authorities issue a visa to a convicted person they also look at the prospect of whether the person is to risk a public or not and in Amir’s case he will not be a risk to the safety of the common man,” said sources.
On his return to domestic cricket, Amir’s performance was so outstanding that he forced his selection back into the national team for the limited-over series in New Zealand in January this year.
“Even when he was selected for New Zealand there were reports that he will not get NZ visa but the process was smooth and even at that time the NZ immigration people had contacted the UK authorities as part of Commonwealth cooperation. UK authorities had no objection to that.”
So come July 14 at Lord’s Amir will be swinging the ball to England batsmen.