Tainted cricketer Salman Butt removed as selection consultant amid backlash

A day after being appointed as Pakistan cricket’s selection consultant, ‘tainted’ cricketer Salman Butt has been removed from the post with immediate effect following a huge backlash, confirmed chief selector Wahab Riaz in a press conference on Saturday.

It was only on Friday that Butt was named to the consulting panel along with Kamran Akmal and Rao Iftikhar Anjum.

Butt, who represented Pakistan in both red-ball and white-ball formats, was suspended after pleading guilty to a match-fixing incident during a test against England at Lords in September 2010.

The International Cricket Council suspended Butt, along with two other players, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif for collaborating to deliberately bowl no-balls at specified moments during the Lord’s Test against England, following instructions from a bookie.

Butt’s selection to the panel had led to a hullabaloo within the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) following which Wahab decided to revert his decision and remove the former left-handed batter.

"Salman Butt isn't on any PCB panel. For me, he is a good cricketing mind who understands cricket and has been covering domestic cricket for the past 2-3 years. He was made my consultant just to get his opinion, based on which some media houses and people started doing propaganda,” Wahab was quoted as saying in a press conference.

“As a chief selector, it's my decision as to who will work with me and whose support I need. But people started discussing nepotism and dosti, due to which I am reverting this decision. I have already spoken to Salman Butt and told him that he cannot be a part of my team," he added.

Wahab said that he earlier wanted to have Butt as a consultant because the latter “was a good cricketing mind”. He said that it was solely his decision earlier and it was not taken under any sort of pressure.

“I think some people perhaps started running an agenda because they wanted to cast dirt on the cricket board and extract personal benefit out of insulting PCB. Since I am a part of this organization, I didn't want any such thing to happen, especially due to my decision, so I took it back," Wahab added.

The consultants will be in charge of Pakistan’s upcoming assignment in the T20 series against New Zealand that gets underway on January 12.

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