Butt questions reliability of NOTW ’spot-fixing’ sting ahead of ICC hearing

ISLAMABAD - Salman Butt, one of the three Pakistani players implicated in the spot-fixing scandal, has questioned the reliability of the sting conducted by a British tabloid due to which he was provisionally suspended by the International Cricket Council (ICC).

“I do not want to comment on The News of the World because everybody knows what kind of paper it is. Everybody knows about its reputation across the world,” The Nation quoted Butt, as saying to a news agency.

He also claimed that Mazhar Majeed, the agent who handled his marketing and promotions, and featured in the sting video “must have made lots of claims … clearly exaggerating things to show his authority.”

“I think he might have said a lot of things in that video because it was edited. So nobody knows what has gone wrong in that video,” he added.

Defending his association with Majeed before the allegations surfaced, Butt said, “He is not somebody who is an agent for me because he has been there even before I was (playing international cricket).”

“These are the people who deal with the marketing side of players and the promotional stuff and they also make money out of it. This is what is being done in the sporting arena around the world and this is not something that came up with Salman Butt,” he added.

The tabloid’s claims had cost Butt his Test captaincy, but he is optimistic about re-donning the skipper’s hat.

“I hope the captaincy will come again some day. I cannot grab it. God gave me one chance and I hope I will get the other chance as well. I want to be remembered as a player who won games for Pakistan,” he maintained.

Meanwhile, Butt and Mohammad Aamer have left for Dubai, where the ICC’s code of conduct commission will hear the duo’s appeals this weekend. The third tainted player- Mohammad Asif- has already withdrawn his appeal, saying that he needed more time for his lawyers to prepare for the case.

“I decided to withdraw the appeal against the suspension for now since we got the detailed documents relating to the case late from the ICC and my lawyers need more time to prepare for a detailed challenge,” Asif had said, while maintaining his innocence. (ANI)