Banned Butt investigated before spot-fixing affair
FORMER Pakistan cricket captain Salman Butt had already been investigated by the ICC three months before the major spot-fixing scandal broke.
Butt was handed a 10-year ban for the part he played in the instances of spot-fixing alleged to have taken place in the fourth Test between England and Pakistan at Lord’s last summer.
But as part of the anti-corruption tribunal’s full judgment, which was published yesterday, Butt’s communications with Mazhar Majeed, the agent at the centre of the scandal, during Pakistan’s World Twenty20 campaign in the Caribbean last year also came under scrutiny.
The evidence was not used in the ICC’s case against Butt (right) and his teammates Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif, all of whom maintain their innocence and who all intend to appeal against their various bans.
Meanwhile, Butt has signed a contract with a Pakistani television channel to appear as pundit for them during the upcoming World Cup in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
“I got a good offer and since I am doing nothing I thought this would allow me to test a new area in cricket,” said the 26-year-old.
The Channel 5 network said it had no issues signing up Butt despite his tarnished reputation.
“We have signed him up purely as a cricket expert,” a spokesman for the channel said.
The ex-opener is also facing criminal charges of accepting bribes and fraud by the London Metropolitan Police and is due to appear in a London court on 17 March.