Younus’ inclusion for England series possible: Butt
Younus, despite getting his indefinite ban overturned, failed to make it to the national squad for the England tour and this trigged speculations of his rift with the PCB chairman. Butt has however dismissed the notion that he has personal vendetta with the Younus.
“I have no personal rift with Younus neither do I have any personal bias against him” Butt told The Express Tribune from London. Instead, Butt claims that he had always rated Younus as a world class batsman.
Butt denies that he had the biggest reservations against having the former captain back in the team following an exchange of bitter statements between the cricket board and Younus’ lawyer after the indefinite ban.
“This is wrong, I am not trying to stop Younus’ inclusion; his selection for the series against England is possible”, he said before adding that former captain was still an asset for the national side despite going through a rough patch in his career. The PCB chairman said that he was in very good terms with the Younus but his lawyer Ahmed Qayyum made the relations bitter by giving statements against the PCB.
“I was in very good terms with Younus but unfortunately his lawyer made things worse by giving non-sense statements,” he said before adding that he will return to Pakistan early next month to review the case for the batsman’s indefinite ban. “I will return in the first week of August and will look into the case to settle down the issue,” said Butt.
Not up to the chairman
Butt has made it clear that Younus and Yousuf’s inclusion in the national squad will be decided with the mutual consent of team management that will comprises of Test captain Salman Butt, coach Waqar Younis and manager Yawar Saeed.
The chairman also confirmed that only Younus and Yousuf are being considered for the Test series against England starting July 29, ending Misbahul Haq’s chances of returning to the national team.
‘Youngsters to be given preference’
Butt claims that the experienced duo of Yousuf and Younus is not an automatic choice and that the team’s young players will be given preference in team selection for series against England.
“Yousuf and Younus are under consideration but we will only select them if we will feel their need as we would like to go with the youngsters”, he said while adding that youngsters, especially Azhar Ali played major role in the memorable Test win against Australia.
“We should look forward rather than looking backward until and unless we are prompted to that because of lack of choice,” said Butt.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 26th, 2010.
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