Amir set to join Derbyshire as local player

Former Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Amir is set to join Derbyshire as a local player next season according to the English daily, The Telegraph.

The 31 year old retired from international cricket in 2020 is seeking British citizenship as his wife is a British citizen ahead of signing a deal with Derbyshire.

Amir had played county cricket for Essex and Gloucestershire previously. 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 as well.

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.

Amir was banned in 2010 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 after found guilty to deliberately bowl no-balls during a Test tour of England. Mohammad 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, then he has been playing in Pakistan, England, Bangladesh and the Caribbean. Amir was rated as a world-class bowled in all three formats, picking up 259 wickets for Pakistan, including 119 in Tests.