It was a match-up that was supposed to light up the Pakistan Super League. Instead, Mohammad Amir's face-off with Babar Azam is making all the wrong noise. In a match between Amir's Karachi Kings and Babar's Peshawar Zalmi, the former was hit for a four by the Pakistan captain on the penultimate ball of the sixth over of the game. After that the left-arm pacer bowled a dot delivery and then collected the ball on the follow through. Soon after, Amir vented out his frustration by throwing the ball at Babar's direction in anger.
While Amir returned figures of 0 for 42 in four overs in the match, Babar scored 68 runs off 46 balls. The fast bowler has now opened up on the incident.
"It was heat of the moment thing and it was nothing personal [against Babar]. Bowlers should show aggression on the field, to get the best out of them," Amir was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan on Thursday. "I was under pressure in the game, which is the beauty of this league. It helps you get better."
Former Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik gave his take on the incident. Malik, who plays for the same PSL team as Amir, said that the players should respect each other, while he admitted that confrontation or any other driving force could be used by players to do better during matches.
"The respect element shouldn't be missing. I've seen Amir, Imad, Babar... whenever they meet, they greet each other with respect," said Malik in a press conference after the match.
"In this room, you won't be compatible in the same way with everyone. Some would gel up well, you'd like some and you might not like some others. But that would only be on a professional basis. I'm sure you all respect each other too."