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Pakistan's banned pacer Mohammad Aamir is hoping to be allowed back in international cricket in 2015, when he would complete a minimum five-year ban for his role in the 2010 spot-fixing scandal that shook the game.
The 20-year old, appearing in his first television interview on the 'Geo Super channel' yesterday, insisted he has learnt from his mistakes.
"No one can understand the hurt I go through today when I watch the Pakistan team playing anywhere. I want to be with them. But there is nothing I can do now except to keep my chin up and hope for the best. It is a huge punishment to realise that I had the world at my feet and I messed it all up because of one mistake," the left-arm pacer said.
"I don't know what is going to happen but I am targeting a return to cricket in 2015. I have nets in my home and I go to the gymnasium. So I am keeping myself motivated. I know I can achieve anything with hard work," he added.
The youngster also asserted that before the spot-fixing scandal, he had never been involved in any kind of corruption. "Even in 2010 what happened was that I was forced into a trap to avoid an unpleasant situation. Some people see it as greed, maybe it was that. But apart from that incident, I played honestly," he said.
Aamir, however, declined to blame his former captain Salman Butt, who also served a jail sentence for his involvement in the scandal, or anyone else for his predicament. "It was my mistake for whatever reasons and I regret it completely and I have apologised for it to my people. But now I want to move on and start a new life," he said.
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