Butt’s TV commentator job may be ‘breach of ICC suspended sentence terms’
By ANIThursday, February 17, 2011
DUBAI - The International Cricket Council has “expressed disappointment” over the hiring of disgraced Pakistani cricketer Salman Butt by a local TV channel, and has asked the Anti-Corruption Tribunal whether this could be “viewed as a breach against the terms of his suspended sentence” in the spot-fixing case.
Pakistan’s Channel Five has hired Butt, who has been banned for ten years with a five-year suspension period, as an expert commentator during the ICC World Cup 2011.
The ICC Executive Board, which met at the Dubai headquarters on February 15, said that it had a “zero tolerance attitude towards corruption”.
It expressed disappointment “at the decision by a minor Pakistan television channel, which has no relationship with the ICC, to employ the suspended player as a studio pundit during the forthcoming ICC Cricket World Cup.”
“We are not satisfied with this appointment and we have written to Tribunal chairman Michael Beloff QC to enquire whether this could be viewed as a breach against the terms of his suspended sentence,” ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat said.
The Executive Board also strengthened the ICC Anti Corruption Code by introducing penalties against “players and support staff who breach the rules by carrying communication devices into the dressing room areas.”
The penalties, supported by the Federation of International Cricketers’ Association (FICA), will include fines.
On February 5, the Anti-Corruption Tribunal appointed by the ICC to hear into the spot-fixing case had imposed a ’sanction of ten years ineligibility’ on Salman Butt, “five years of which are suspended on condition that he commits no further breach of the code and that he participates under the auspices of the Pakistan Cricket Board in a programme of Anti-Corruption education.” (ANI)
