Pakistan Cricket Board removes Salman Butt as selection consultant following backlash

Salman Butt has been removed as Pakistan cricket’s selection consultant, confirms chief selector Wahab Riaz in a press conference on Saturday, December 2.

It was only on Friday that Butt was named in the consulting panel along with Kamran Akmal and Rao Iftikhar Anjum.

But after the entire hullabaloo over Butt’s selection in the panel, Wahab decided to revert his decision and remove the former left-handed batter.

“Salman Butt isn’t on any PCB panel. For me, he is a good cricketing mind who understands cricket and has been covering domestic cricket for the past 2-3 years. He was made my consultant just to get his opinion, based on which some media houses and people started doing propaganda,” Wahab was quoted as saying in a press conference.

“As a chief selector, it’s my decision as to who will work with me and whose support I need. But people started discussing nepotism and dosti, due to which I am reverting this decision. I have already spoken to Salman Butt and told him that he cannot be a part of my team,” he added.

Wahab said that he earlier wanted to have Butt as a consultant because the latter “was a good cricketing mind”. He said that it was solely his decision earlier and it was not taken under any sort of pressure.

Wahab said that he had to reverse his decision to appoint Butt after the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) faced backlash over picking him.

“I think some people perhaps started running an agenda because they wanted to cast dirt on the cricket board and extract personal benefit out of insulting PCB. Since I am a part of this organization, I didn’t want any such thing to happen, especially due to my decision, so I took it back,” Wahab added.

The consultants will be in charge for Pakistan’s upcoming assignment in the T20 series against New Zealand that gets underway on January 12.