Karachi:
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is at loggerheads with Salman Butt as the banned Test captain is not ready to accept blame for encouraging his former teammates Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif to take part in spot-fixing in 2010.
A senior official in the PCB told PTI that the board had put on hold Butt’s case.
“He met with PCB officials and had requested that we take up his case for some relaxation from the International Cricket Council before his ban ends as was done in Mohammad Aamer’s case,” the official said.
“But so far he has not responded to a letter we sent him on February 9 in which we had told him clearly he needed to be more honest and forthright if he harbours any hope of playing cricket again,” the official added.
He said the problem with Butt was that while he has admitted to have violated the ICC anti-corruption code, he was not willing to accept his role in getting Asif and Aamer to indulge in spot-fixing during the fourth Test against England at Lords in August 2010.
Butt, Aamer and Asif were banned for minimum five-year terms by the ICC’s anti-corruption tribunal in February 2011 for spot-fixing and they later also served varying jail terms in the United Kingdom.
Aamer got some relaxation as he cooperated with the ICC and later confessed and apologised for his actions.
The PCB official made it clear that the board would not take up Butt’s case unless he came clean.
“He has not responded to our letter sent in February so there is nothing much we can do.”
