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Salman Butt has been following Pakistan cricket from close quarters since his retirement.© X (Twitter)
Amid backlash over former captain Salman Butt‘s appointment as a consultant to newly-appointed chief selector Wahab Riaz, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced the decision to remove the former player his role with immediate effect. Butt was one of three former players, along with Kamran Akmal and Rao Iftikhar, hired by the board to assist Riaz. The uproar was over Butt’s involvement in a match-fixing scandal in 2010 which saw the player being banned from cricket for 10 years by the ICC.
After serving his ban, Butt featured in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) and the domestic circuit, before working as a cricket analyst for various media houses across the country.
While the PCB clarified that Butt would not be directly involved in the selection matter, Riaz announced the decision to sack him from three-member consultant panel.
“People were talking all sorts of stuff about me and Salman Butt. Therefore, I am reverting the decision and I have already spoken to Salman Butt and I have told him that he cannot be part of my team. Some media houses and people are resorting to propaganda. Since we’re working under the chairmanship of Zaka Ashraf in a transparent manner, I am thankful to the board for allowing me to choose the people I want to work with,” Riaz told reporters at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on Saturday.
Citing the exampls of former India cricketers Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja, who were slapped with a five-match ban by the BCCI back in 2000 for their alleged connection in a match-fixing scandal, Riaz explained how world cricket has moved on from the incident that took place in the past.
“In India, we have examples of Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja. They are working in cricket now and there is no fuss. Azharuddin is president of one of the cricket associations and Jadeja was Afghanistan’s batting consultant in the World Cup,” he added.
Notably, Azharuddin is currently serving as the president of Hyderabad Cricket Association while Jadeja was the batting consultant of Afghanistan during the recently-concluded World Cup.
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