Salman Butt should be banned for life: Former PCB chairman

Ijaz Butt says he wanted to help Amir but he was not ready to confess his wrongdoings

Former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, Ijaz Butt, said in an interview that a life ban should be imposed on the leader of the spot-fixing trio, Salman Butt.

The then chief of PCB when the spot-fixing case was disclosed in front of the world by a British newspaper, News Of The World, while talking to BBC urdu said that: “Salman should not be allowed to play cricket in any case while the other two cricketers, Muhammad Asif and Muhammad Amir, should be kept under strict check before they could return to competitive cricket.”

He further added that: “Although the trio has served their sentence in England, but they should be given punishment in Pakistan as well.”

Moreover, Ijaz Butt said that if he was the current chairman of the PCB he would have never allowed Salman to resume his career. He stated that Asif was mature enough to understand what he was doing but Amir could be given the benefit of doubt that he was young and might have been forcefully involved into fixing by Salman.

He added that he kept asking Amir to confess his wrongdoings but he chose a Pakistani lawyers over Ijaz’s proposed British lawyer.

Ijaz butt also talked about the bookey Mazhar Majeed saying that he was in constantly in contact with many Pakistani players acting as an agent and whenever they were asked about Mazhar they would say he has been referred to them by senior players.

Ijaz concluded by saying that he is ready to share useful information with the PCB about the case if asked to do so.