One of the legal team defending Salman Butt against allegations of spot-fixing during the Lord’s Test in August fears that the ICC will make an example of the former Pakistan captain at his hearing next month (Richard Hobson writes). The claim is made in a special report on Sky Sports News tonight (7.30).
Butt, who faces a life ban if found guilty, claims that money found in his hotel room during the game came from standard tour allowances. “About £11,000 was from my daily allowances and, being captain, I have extra entertainment allowance which amounts to about £4,500,” Butt says.
The ICC is already concerned at details of the case being aired before the fate of Butt — along with that of Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif — is determined.
After England’s 1968-69 tour of South Africa was called off, they visited Pakistan instead. But there was a lot of political unrest there at the time (plus ça change…), and it was said in some newspapers that the only way of avoiding crowd trouble would be for Pakistan’s selectors to include Gul, a student leader who was also a handy batsman. He was duly called up, and made 12 and 29 in Lahore in a match that passed off without major incident, but even he couldn’t prevent a riot in the third Test, in Karachi, after which England flew home. Aftab played a few more Tests without much success, and was then arrested after a change of government: he supposedly had some grenades and a rocket launcher hidden under his bed. He was exiled for a while, but eventually returned to practise law: he’s now representing Salman Butt in his fight against ICC suspension.
