[REPORTS] Salman Butt to be considered for Test series vs West Indies

[MenInG]

http://www.cricketcountry.com/news/...sidered-for-test-series-vs-west-indies-585247

Karachi: Pakistan‘s disgraced former captain Salman Butt is being considered for selection for the three-match Test series in the West Indies in April after the PCB gave clearance to the national selection committee. Butt, 32, was the mastermind of the spot-fixing scandal that took place during Pakistan’s tour to England in 2010 and along with teammates – Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer – were banned for five-years and served jail time. Their bans expired in September 2015 and while Butt has performed well in domestic cricket since then, Aamer has made his way back into the national team last January.

The PCB has remained reluctant to give formal clearance for Butt to play for Pakistan again, always insisting it was upto the national selectors to decide his case. “Now the PCB has given its clearance and chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq has had a discussion with the national team’s head coach Mickey Arthur about probable selections for the Test series in the West Indies and Butt’s name has been discussed seriously,” a well-informed source told PTI. He said Butt was likely to be called up for the national training camp that will be set up prior to the announcement of the squad.

Earlier, Inzamam-ul-Haq, chief selector of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), recently silenced a reporter in style when asked a detailed question regarding the return of tainted former skipper Salman Butt into the national team. While speaking during a visit to the Sports Journalists’ Association of Lahore, the 42-year-old was told by a reporter that Butt’s performance in the domestic season has been impressive and, therefore, it made him eligible for selection, reported ANI

 

[Rayyman]

It would be a travesty if Butt is selected, and Imam ul-Haq isn't.

 

[RickyG]

On the one hand you want to punish Sharjeel Khan and Khalid Latif as harshly as possible and make examples out of them. On the other, you want to re-introduce your traitor ex-captain back into international cricket.

What statement is the PCB trying to make?

My fear is that Inzi's might be backing the pious hafiz-e-quran Salman Butt, having captained him previously and developed a personal relationship.

 

[Markhor]

Here's how I would "consider" Salman Butt:

"Hey how about Salman Butt ?"

"Nah, he's a fixer and a traitor who miserably failed more often than not in his first stint in international cricket."

"OK, let's move on. NEXT !"

There, that's him considered.

 

[Rayyman]

On the one hand you want to punish Sharjeel Khan and Khalid Latif as harshly as possible and make examples out of them. On the other, you want to re-introduce your traitor ex-captain back into international cricket.

What statement is the PCB trying to make?

My fear is that Inzi's might be backing the pious hafiz-e-quran Salman Butt, having captained him previously and developed a personal relationship.

Don't trust anything that PCB officials state.

 

[BA56]

Here's how I would "consider" Salman Butt:

"Hey how about Salman Butt ?"

"Nah, he's a fixer and a traitor who miserably failed more often than not in his first stint in international cricket."

"OK, let's move on. NEXT !"

There, that's him considered.

Word.

 

[srh]

http://www.cricketcountry.com/news/...sidered-for-test-series-vs-west-indies-585247

Karachi: Pakistan‘s disgraced former captain Salman Butt is being considered for selection for the three-match Test series in the West Indies in April after the PCB gave clearance to the national selection committee. Butt, 32, was the mastermind of the spot-fixing scandal that took place during Pakistan’s tour to England in 2010 and along with teammates – Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer – were banned for five-years and served jail time. Their bans expired in September 2015 and while Butt has performed well in domestic cricket since then, Aamer has made his way back into the national team last January.

The PCB has remained reluctant to give formal clearance for Butt to play for Pakistan again, always insisting it was upto the national selectors to decide his case. “Now the PCB has given its clearance and chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq has had a discussion with the national team’s head coach Mickey Arthur about probable selections for the Test series in the West Indies and Butt’s name has been discussed seriously,” a well-informed source told PTI. He said Butt was likely to be called up for the national training camp that will be set up prior to the announcement of the squad.

Earlier, Inzamam-ul-Haq, chief selector of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), recently silenced a reporter in style when asked a detailed question regarding the return of tainted former skipper Salman Butt into the national team. While speaking during a visit to the Sports Journalists’ Association of Lahore, the 42-year-old was told by a reporter that Butt’s performance in the domestic season has been impressive and, therefore, it made him eligible for selection, reported ANI

Inna Lilahi Wa Inna Ilahi Rajion.

Once PCB allowed convicted fixer Mohammad Amir back in the team, it has no moral ground.

 

[JibranAnsari]

a million steps backwards

 

[pakistani pride]

He wont be back.
Thats a given.

 

[Syed1]

I'd like to see how [MENTION=53290]Markhor[/MENTION] defends Inzi here.

 

[Markhor]

I'd like to see how [MENTION=53290]Markhor[/MENTION] defends Inzi here.

I'm not, it would be a disgusting selection and not one I'd consider as I mention in #4. I would actively root for Butt's failure if he returns.

 

[ask_analyse_act]

just an add up news... After fixing fiasco in PSL, it would be very stupid on PCB to select Butt and Asif,,, Also MA will not SMH to it... last thing he would want is some one getting caught for match fixing or spot fixing on his tenure as a coach....

 

[rajulakhpati]

Never a dull moment with Pak Cricket. If they decide to do this, it will once again send them back into the abyss. He's 32, was never a world beater, and orchestrated the entire spot fixing scandal, the fact that his name is even resurfacing shows how pathetic Pakistan's cricketing depth and talent is.

 

[Boycottisno2]

It is the journalists who keep on asking questions .... and then we get stupid answers by PCB and Inzamam... about Salman Butt.... the best answer was qiven by the coach.... "We have enough on our plates without having to worry about Salman Butt" : Mickey Arthur.... Thanks

 

[Square Drive]

Would indeed be a travesty if Butt is picked ahead of Imam or even Shehzad.

 

[Hawkeye]

Inzi and Mickey at it.

This combo is turning out to be quite dangerous, if it's true.

 

[Boycottisno2]

Inzi or Micky don't want to touch Salman Butt.... it is Butt's journalists friends are more interested to see him in the Pakistan team.... cant you people see this is happening.... nothing else

 

[Adil_94]

if Butt gets to play at the highest level after orchestrating the spot fixing scandal of 2010 then what message does that send the likes of Sharjeel and Khalid Latif.

 

[Hasan123]

Till he is actually selected , don't believe anything.

 

[Jabo]

I don't understand this

Sami... he had a poor time against AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND not bloody Zimbabwe or Bangladesh

So they want to drop him instead of him playing against WI and improve

If you want to drop anyone
Drop the goldenboy who is too mentally weak to play at 3 when that's his ideal position

He should not be at 6 and Babar at 3

We likely get the typical xi

Hafeez/Sami
Azhar/Hafeez
Babar/Azhar
YK
Misbah
Shafiq
Sarfraz
Shah
Riaz
Amir
Rahat

 

[srh]

Inzi and Mickey at it.

This combo is turning out to be quite dangerous, if it's true.

Inzi is the only one at fault. He is the one who wants to impose on Pakistan tested tried failures like Kamran Akmal or dishonest tested tried failures like Salman Butt

 

[msb314]

Would be well deserved on merit over other "youngsters" who are not performing.

Hopefully he has learnt his lesson and can make the most of his chance now.

 

[fawad_wellwisher]

Goes to show that Inzi and Mickey are fast running out of options.

 

[Junaids]

This shows the extent to which Pakistan cricket remains a prisoner to the ruling elite's social class system.

1. The cricketing argument
If you had to recall EITHER Salman Butt OR Mohammad Asif, surely the cricketing argument has to be in favour of Asif.

Salman Butt is a left-handed opener who is 32, and your other opener (Azhar Ali) is already 32 himself.

But there is a highly promising younger generation in the form of both Sami Aslam and Imam-ul-Haq - each of whom is 21 years old - who offer the prospect of a decade of international cricket, whereas both Azhar Ali and Salman Butt are at that about-to-go-into-decline stage at which Alastair Cook has resigned the captaincy so that he can try to eke out a final 12-18 months of international cricket as a specialist batsman before he loses his consistency like Younis Khan or Misbah or any other elderly batsman.

Meanwhile Mohammad Asif actually performs a role - right-arm Test opening bowler - that nobody else can do competently. He is still at least as quick as Imran Khan but he is also only a year older than Sohail Khan, but has more skill than the two Khans combined.

Any responsible selection panel carefully manages the number of elderly players in the team. You only pick a man in his thirties if a younger man cannot perform that role.

There is a cricketing argument for Asif. There is no cricketing argument for Butt now that the Australia tour is over.

2. The moral argument
We all know that Salman Butt abused his power as newly-installed national team captain to be the on-field leader of the spotfix. (I acknowledge that he was not the mastermind - it was a newspaper entrapment, but that doesn't reduce his guilt).

Salman Butt was well paid for his crimes. He abused his authority.

But we also know that the ICC Tribunal of distinguished jurists (including the legendary Michael Beloff and Albie Sachs) found that Mohammad Asif refused to take money or other rewards for his one no-ball, and indeed only bowled it due to the extreme persistence of his manager in begging for him to bowl it.

If only one of the two players is to be recalled, and moral arguments are to be considered, then it should be Mohammad Asif who is recalled, not Salman Butt.

Conclusion
What did any of us really expect?

Pakistan cricket is run by a man in his eighties who attended an elite Indian school for Royalty. He has as his skipper a has-been in his forties whose only claim to the role is a non-cricketing one, that his social class and education make him a capable sporting ambassador.

Meanwhile players like Umar Akmal who lack such social finesse find themselves in and mainly out of the team, a batsman one day and a wicketkeeper the next.

But to recall Salman Butt - even to a camp - and not Mohammad Asif? When the country has two excellent 21 year old left-handed openers but no right-arm fast bowler worthy of the title?

It is horrifying. Scandalous.

 

[shaz619]

This shows the extent to which Pakistan cricket remains a prisoner to the ruling elite's social class system.

1. The cricketing argument
If you had to recall EITHER Salman Butt OR Mohammad Asif, surely the cricketing argument has to be in favour of Asif.

Salman Butt is a left-handed opener who is 32, and your other opener (Azhar Ali) is already 32 himself.

But there is a highly promising younger generation in the form of both Sami Aslam and Imam-ul-Haq - each of whom is 21 years old - who offer the prospect of a decade of international cricket, whereas both Azhar Ali and Salman Butt are at that about-to-go-into-decline stage at which Alastair Cook has resigned the captaincy so that he can try to eke out a final 12-18 months of international cricket as a specialist batsman before he loses his consistency like Younis Khan or Misbah or any other elderly batsman.

Meanwhile Mohammad Asif actually performs a role - right-arm Test opening bowler - that nobody else can do competently. He is still at least as quick as Imran Khan but he is also only a year older than Sohail Khan, but has more skill than the two Khans combined.

Any responsible selection panel carefully manages the number of elderly players in the team. You only pick a man in his thirties if a younger man cannot perform that role.

There is a cricketing argument for Asif. There is no cricketing argument for Butt now that the Australia tour is over.

2. The moral argument
We all know that Salman Butt abused his power as newly-installed national team captain to be the on-field leader of the spotfix. (I acknowledge that he was not the mastermind - it was a newspaper entrapment, but that doesn't reduce his guilt).

Salman Butt was well paid for his crimes. He abused his authority.

But we also know that the ICC Tribunal of distinguished jurists (including the legendary Michael Beloff and Albie Sachs) found that Mohammad Asif refused to take money or other rewards for his one no-ball, and indeed only bowled it due to the extreme persistence of his manager in begging for him to bowl it.

If only one of the two players is to be recalled, and moral arguments are to be considered, then it should be Mohammad Asif who is recalled, not Salman Butt.

Conclusion
What did any of us really expect?

Pakistan cricket is run by a man in his eighties who attended an elite Indian school for Royalty. He has as his skipper a has-been in his forties whose only claim to the role is a non-cricketing one, that his social class and education make him a capable sporting ambassador.

Meanwhile players like Umar Akmal who lack such social finesse find themselves in and mainly out of the team, a batsman one day and a wicketkeeper the next.

But to recall Salman Butt - even to a camp - and not Mohammad Asif? When the country has two excellent 21 year old left-handed openers but no right-arm fast bowler worthy of the title?

It is horrifying. Scandalous.

Can tell from the way he writes that Junaids is a psychiatrist, your post format reminds me off a report which a psychiatrist sent me after performing an evaluation on the bear

Speaking of the big bad butt, he was a manipulative mastermind criminal who deserves all the tomatoes which are thrown at him Having said that I did enjoy his centuries in AUS and he looked to be turning a corner at one point and genuinely had a decent IQ as captain which had potential but the man was greedy. Don't want to see him in the green colours again, I'd happily welcome him at the Warwickshire Bears though

 

[Junaids]

Can tell from the way he writes that Junaids is a psychiatrist, your post format reminds me off a report which a psychiatrist sent me after performing an evaluation on the bear

Speaking of the big bad butt, he was a manipulative mastermind criminal who deserves all the tomatoes which are thrown at him Having said that I did enjoy his centuries in AUS and he looked to be turning a corner at one point and genuinely had a decent IQ as captain which had potential but the man was greedy. Don't want to see him in the green colours again, I'd happily welcome him at the Warwickshire Bears though

I don't think that either Asif or Butt should be recalled now.

Their window was the tours of England, Australia and New Zealand, to which their skill sets were suited and just before they became so old that they will be a liability.

There is a faint argument for Mohammad Asif because Imran Khan is so slow, Sohail Khan has such a terrible second innings record and Hasan Ali is 6-9 inches too short for the role.

But there is no possible way to justify recalling Salman Butt to do a job which Sami Aslam and Imam-ul-Haq can do, when Aslam and Imam are ELEVEN YEARS YOUNGER.

 

[shaz619]

I don't think that either Asif or Butt should be recalled now.

Their window was the tours of England, Australia and New Zealand, to which their skill sets were suited and just before they became so old that they will be a liability.

There is a faint argument for Mohammad Asif because Imran Khan is so slow, Sohail Khan has such a terrible second innings record and Hasan Ali is 6-9 inches too short for the role.

But there is no possible way to justify recalling Salman Butt to do a job which Sami Aslam and Imam-ul-Haq can do, when Aslam and Imam are ELEVEN YEARS YOUNGER.

Butt is friends with Inzamam apparently so he is likely to be selected, in the instance he is I wonder how Mickey will deal with it; if he is selected Mickey could simply keep him as the bench warmer to send a message to the selectors but then that could potentially undermine his own position

 

[Junaids]

Butt is friends with Inzamam apparently so he is likely to be selected, in the instance he is I wonder how Mickey will deal with it; if he is selected Mickey could simply keep him as the bench warmer to send a message to the selectors but then that could potentially undermine his own position

My guess is that people misjudge what Mickey wants.

I've read his autobiography from cover to cover, and as a psychiatrist you get a window into a person's sporting priorities when you read 300 pages of their writing on the same subject.

My guess is that he actually knew that Asif and Butt wouldn't tour England when he took the job. And he had other priorities anyway, namely getting Hafeez out of the Test team, and Sami Aslam in, and ensuring that Azhar and Shafiq ended up seen as the key batsmen rather than Younis and Misbah. And he needed to use the ODI team - where there was no Misbah - to ensure that Babar Azam finally got established.

But I suspect that Mickey Arthur already knew long before the team got to New Zealand, let alone Australia, that Imran Khan and Sohail Khan were incapable of the job and that he needed Mohammad Asif to stand a chance of success.

I think that Arthur also knew by the time he got to Australia that Misbah and Younis were incapable at their advanced ages of the consistency every Test team needs at Numbers 4 and 5. He then needed the team to perform as well as it could and for the older players to play their way out of contention.

The problem is this. The players in Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif's positions contributed nothing whatsoever in Australia and New Zealand. Mickey must understand the cricketing argument, but he is the guy who dropped Shaun Pollock and Herschelle Gibbs for being too old when they were actually younger than Asif and Butt.

He's really good at the diplomatic duties now, is Mickey Arthur. But I don't believe for a second that he didn't want Asif and Butt in Australia.

 

[Syed1]

Goes to show that Inzi and Mickey are fast running out of options.

What options?? Azhar already has one openers spot locked down. Sami has been doing an okay job as the second opener. He failed in his first tour down under but it's not like our other batsmen wrapped themselves in glory.

Sami is a limited batsman but I'll still take him over a corrupt TTF like Butt.


It's just that Inzi is trying to bring back all those players who were around when he himself was still playing.

 

[Gilly]

But we also know that the ICC Tribunal of distinguished jurists (including the legendary Michael Beloff and Albie Sachs) found that Mohammad Asif refused to take money or other rewards for his one no-ball, and indeed only bowled it due to the extreme persistence of his manager in begging for him to bowl it.

If only one of the two players is to be recalled, and moral arguments are to be considered, then it should be Mohammad Asif who is recalled, not Salman Butt.

.

Have you any evidence of this?.

 

[Junaids]

Have you any evidence of this?.

Yes, I do.

It is Section 233 on page 86 of the ICC Tribunal findings.

It states that the ICC accepts in the case of Asif "his lesser involvement in the fix" and "the absence of any reward received by him".

I wrote to the ICC Legal Department late last year for permission to upload it on this site, but they did not reply. Given that every page contains a warning about dissemination of the Report potentially breaching the Contempt of Court Act 1981, I'm not game to upload it without permission.

 

[fawad_wellwisher]

What options?? Azhar already has one openers spot locked down. Sami has been doing an okay job as the second opener. He failed in his first tour down under but it's not like our other batsmen wrapped themselves in glory.

Sami is a limited batsman but I'll still take him over a corrupt TTF like Butt.

It's just that Inzi is trying to bring back all those players who were around when he himself was still playing.

There is a reason why they played Sharjeel in tests. Pakistan has always struggled to find reliable openers.

 

[shaz619]

My guess is that people misjudge what Mickey wants.

I've read his autobiography from cover to cover, and as a psychiatrist you get a window into a person's sporting priorities when you read 300 pages of their writing on the same subject.

My guess is that he actually knew that Asif and Butt wouldn't tour England when he took the job. And he had other priorities anyway, namely getting Hafeez out of the Test team, and Sami Aslam in, and ensuring that Azhar and Shafiq ended up seen as the key batsmen rather than Younis and Misbah. And he needed to use the ODI team - where there was no Misbah - to ensure that Babar Azam finally got established.

But I suspect that Mickey Arthur already knew long before the team got to New Zealand, let alone Australia, that Imran Khan and Sohail Khan were incapable of the job and that he needed Mohammad Asif to stand a chance of success.

I think that Arthur also knew by the time he got to Australia that Misbah and Younis were incapable at their advanced ages of the consistency every Test team needs at Numbers 4 and 5. He then needed the team to perform as well as it could and for the older players to play their way out of contention.

The problem is this. The players in Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif's positions contributed nothing whatsoever in Australia and New Zealand. Mickey must understand the cricketing argument, but he is the guy who dropped Shaun Pollock and Herschelle Gibbs for being too old when they were actually younger than Asif and Butt.

He's really good at the diplomatic duties now, is Mickey Arthur. But I don't believe for a second that he didn't want Asif and Butt in Australia.

Like you said, gibbs and shaun were older yet arther still dropped them so I don't think he has wanted asif or butt at any point, he has also stated recently that he got bigger things to worry about then salman; now that butt is likely to return he has made a political statement because he has never wanted him in the team

 

[Nil Dhumrojal]

All the fixtures are coming back I am worried.

 

[aloo paratha]

He's not even good enough.