The Blame Game begins for Salman Butt
Cricket, the gentlemen's sports, is no longer so noble. The year 2010 will sadly be remembered as a year marked by spot fixing claims and corruption scandals, whether it was the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) shady ways of handling the administration or the
politics laden Pakistani cricket.
But of course who could forget the “News of the World,” a British tabloid which shook the foundations of the so called ‘gentlemen's sport’. A bizarre series of videos released by the tabloid showed an alleged bookie named Mazher Majeed. He was caught claiming
to have bribed three Pakistani players to deliberately bowl no balls. The summer of 2010 was marred by allegations and more controversies specifically for the cricket of Pakistan. The ‘match-fixer’ was apparently set up by a reporter who was an undercover
agent for the tabloid.
Majeed roped in Pakistani fast bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer to bowl no balls at specific moments of the fourth Test match at Lord’s against England. Former captain Salman Butt and wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal were also named along with three unnamed
players.
So the months followed with more allegations on some more Pakistani players including Shoaib Malik who allegedly have links with the fixers. The International Cricket Council (ICC) then decided to wake up and suspend the three main alleged cricketers in
the spot-fixing fiasco.
The most bizarre thing of the whole controversy was the way how the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 Cricket Board decided to stay out the whole mess. As former Pakistani cricket coach Geoff Lawson aptly stated that “Ijaz Butt hides from crisis.” Even then the PCB chairman and
his allies decided to turn a blind eye when the whole hoopla was taking place in London.
The ICC set up their anti corruption unit in order to handle the situation which of course was followed by police searching the rooms of the Pakistani cricket team and questioning everyone wearing a green shirt.
An interesting thing happened at this instance when the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Scotland-c756 Yard began searching the rooms of the alleged players. The detectives found large sums of cash in the Butt’s hotel room. They also confiscated mobile phones and very expensive branded watches.
Mr. Butt claimed that the banknotes, the £150,000 cash, and the expensive accessories were all part of his sister’s wedding shopping that he intended to do after the tour wraps up. This statement seemed believable at that time, given the nature of the lavish
weddings that take place in his part of the world.
The former Test player remained low key for sometime but resurfaced again saying he is guilty and he will prove his innocence.
Bad news followed for Salman Butt in November as his lawyer http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Aftab-Gul-c42202 decided to withdraw from the case citing that the players will not get “justice.” He claimed that the ICC tribunal judgment is fixed and the final hearing that is scheduled in January
will be nothing but drama.
Salman Butt arranged another lawyer, this time a very notable and renowned lawyer of Pakistan, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan who convinced Gul to stay as a member of the legal team that will be representing Butt.
He also hired the services of British lawyer Yaseen Patel to represent him before the Scotland Yard.
In a bid to be back in the limelight, Salman Butt recorded an interview with Sky Sports News earlier this week on a special report of the Pakistani cricket crisis.
Everything was fine as he appeared poised during the interview but he stabbed his own back when he claimed that the money found in the room was actually legitimate cash provided them by the PCB.
“I think everybody knows the PCB pays us daily allowances on tours and it was a long tour so about £11,000 of that money was from my daily allowances and being the captain I have an extra entertainment allowance which amounts to about £4,500 on the tour,
which I had with me,” he said.
This was contradiction number one. The second one was when he claimed in the same interview that some of the banknotes were actually from an Ice-cream parlour where he was the
guest of honour to open for the parlour in Tooting. He claimed that the £2,500 banknote was given to him for the opening that he went to along with Mohammad Aamer.
What has happened to the poor guy? He is actually digging his own grave. This shows the amount of confusion in the players’ minds due to be left out by the cricketing board. Even though he has the services of such a high profile legal team, he failed to
have an intelligent PR team that did not give him a set guideline on what to say and what not to.
The suspended players will be summoned in Doha, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Qatar-c2986 which is scheduled to begin from January 6th, 2011.
Until then, Mr. Butt could just lay low and pray that the blame game fails to get noticed by the tribunal lawyers.
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