Disgraced Pakistan bowler Mohammad Asif has returned to cricket after five-year bans for spot-fixing in a 2010 Test against England now is playing club cricket in Norway as he continues to revive his career.
According to local media reports, Although playing cricket in Norway is not the best way to plot a Test match comeback, the 33-year-old still believes he can make a return to international cricket. “My dream is to make a comeback and play for three to four years,” he said. “I want to play a good standard of cricket again – that’s my dream,” he added.
“One of my friends called me to ask me to come and play some cricket," Asif says. "There's good weather for training - that's why I came here,” Asif told ESPN Cricinfo.
Mohammad Asif still believes he can make a return to international cricket. Asif will use his time in Norway to stay fit ahead of the new domestic cricket season in Pakistan, which starts in September, and says he is "100% sure" he will play international cricket again. He added, "Hopefully I will do well in Pakistan and get selected for the national team for the tours to New Zealand and Australia,” BBC reported.
In his career, the right-armer was punished twice for testing positive for steroids, imprisoned once in Dubai, UAE for travelling with a recreational drug, and banned for five years for deliberately bowling no-balls in exchange for £65,000 at Lord's cricket ground in 2010. He was later handed a one-year prison sentence as well for the last offence.
Asif admitted that he faced some difficult times, but he believes in moving forward. “It was a very difficult time, but difficult time passes,” he said. “That’s in the past, I don’t want to talk too much about that. I just want to play cricket,” he added.
However, Asif was suspended along with then Test Captain Salman Butt and fast bowler Mohammad Amir for their part in a spot-fixing scandal, after Pakistan deliberately bowled no balls at Lord's. He was found guilty by the ICC in February 2011 and sentenced to prison, where he served six months of a year-long sentence.
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