A day after the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) appointed former international Salman Butt as a consultant to Chief Selector Wahab Riaz, he was removed from the post on Saturday, as reported. The chief selector convened a press conference on Saturday to announce that Butt’s name was withdrawn from the consulting panel with immediate effect.
The southpaw, who represented Pakistan in both red-ball and white-ball formats, was suspended after pleading guilty to a spot-fixing incident during a Test against England at Lord’s in 2010. Butt’s appointment as a consultant to the selection panel faced strong resistance from within the PCB.
According to a report, an employee of the apex administrative body of Pakistan Cricket was said to be uncomfortable with the appointment of the tainted 39-year-old former cricketer as a consultant and threatened to resign. In the face of mounting internal pressure and criticism over the appointment, Wahab convened an urgent press conference on Saturday and confirmed Butt’s withdrawal from the selection panel. Earlier, on Friday, the PCB named former players Kamran Akmal, Rao Iftikhar Anjum, and Butt as consultants to the chief selector.
Their appointment was made with immediate effect, and their first assignment is the upcoming five-match T20I series against New Zealand, scheduled to begin on January 12 after the overseas tour of Australia, which will get underway on December 14. The consultants have been hired to help the team achieve the same success they did in the last T20 World Cup.