PCB says chances of Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif returning to Pakistan squad are slim

Haroon Rashid, director of domestic cricket in the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said that the chances of Mohammad Asif and Salman Butt returning to the national squad are pretty slim. The duo, along with left-arm pacer Mohammad Amir, were convicted for their involvement in the spot-fixing scandal which rocked world cricket in 2010. The trio deliberately under-performed at times in a Test match at Lord’s against England in 2010.

Rashid was briefing the Senate Standing Commit­tee on Inter-provincial Coordination (IPC) which met at Parliament House with Senator Mohammad Yaqoob Khan Nasar in the chair when he brought up the topic of the banned trio. A former Test cricketer Haroon Rashid believed right-arm pacer Mohammad Asif did not meet the required the fitness levels for international cricket.

Asif and Butt slapped with bans in 2011

Earlier, Senator Faisal Javed asked Haroon about the status of Asif and former Pakistan captain Salman Butt, both of whom were found to be involved in the spot-fixing scandal during Pakistan’s 2010 tour of England. They went on to complete their jail terms and also served bans imposed by the International Cricket Council.

Subsequently, the ICC allowed them to play cricket, but neither of them had been given the chance to represent Pakistan at the international level. Amir, however, has returned to the national side and was also instrumental in Pakistan’s 2017 ICC Champions Trophy triumph.

Speaking about Amir’s return to international cricket, Haroon said that the left-arm pacer’s case was different. The key point in Amir’s situation was that when the spot-fixing allegations surfaced, Amir was still under nineteen years of age. He also confessed to having fixed sections of the game, and later went on to campaign for the ICC and the PCB spreading awareness about the menaces of fixing. Asif and Salman, however, had not confessed to their involvement in spot-fixing, until they were declared guilty, Haroon added.

“I think, instead on focusing on these two players, the PCB is concentrating on [developing] young players, who have [potentially] long careers ahead,” Haroon Rashid concluded.

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