ICC asks Salman Butt to file ‘fresh reply’ in spot-fixing scandal

DOHA - The International Cricket Council (ICC) has asked suspended Pakistani cricketer Salman Butt to file a fresh reply to the spot-fixing charges against him.

Aftab Gul, one of the lawyers who had been representing Butt, said the ICC had rejected a 40-page reply filed earlier this week.

“Now the ICC has said that he must file a fresh reply by later today or he could lose his right of defence against the allegations made against him,” Geo News quoted Gul, as saying.

He also said he was no longer representing Butt, and other lawyers were now handling his case.

On December 13, Butt had filed a detailed, comprehensive and hard-hitting 40-page response to each allegation levelled against him by the ICC’s anti-corruption and security unit.

In his report, Butt had also mentioned spot-fixing and match fixing incidents, in which he had talked about former Pakistan cricketers, including former captain and incumbent coach Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram, Mushtaq Ahmed, Inzamamul Haq and Saeed Anwar.

Interestingly, the copy of the detailed response had also been sent to PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt and PCB’s legal advisor Tafazul Rizvi, on which the ICC raised its objection.

An ICC code of conduct tribunal will hear the spot-fixing charges levelled against Butt and pace bowlers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif in January 2011.

The tainted trio were suspended pending an investigation into allegations that they arranged for deliberate no-balls to be delivered in the fourth test against England this year. (ANI)