LAHORE – Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt has officially requested the International Cricket Council (ICC) to review the ban on young Mohammad Amir, who was banned for five-year on charges of corruption along with Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif earlier this month.
Butt put forward the request to the ICC in a television interview aired late Friday. “As the Anti-corruption tribunal has asked for a review on the code of conduct, we too have requested the ICC to have a review on the five-year ban on Amir,” Butt said. The anti-corruption tribunal, headed by Michael Beloff, while announcing the verdict last week also requested the ICC to review the minimum sanction in their code of conduct, which is five years, in special cases.
It was widely speculated that Amir, aged only 18 and having never violated the ICC code of conduct in his two-year international career, would get a two or one-year ban, but the tribunal had to impose five years, the minimum for this type of breach. Butt admitted the chances of the ban being reviewed or reduced were remote. “There is one out of million chance as the final decision would rest with the ICC,” said Butt. Butt hoped the request for a review would be discussed at ICC’s next board meeting later this year.
The Pakistan Cricket Board is more than willing to go and play in India in a bid to resume bilateral cricketing ties with the arch-rivals, which have been suspended since the Mumbai terror attacks in late 2008. Chairman PCB Ijaz Butt said that they had even spoken to the government about going and playing in India if the opportunity arose.
“We are keen to resume bilateral ties with them and the Indian board has also given us in writing that whenever the governments give the clearance they will have no objection in resuming the ties. They owe us a series,” Butt said. He also said that the PCB was keen to play India because it would improve their financial health a lot.
“A series against India can earn us anything between 40 to 42 million dollars, which is far more than what we get playing against other countries. Plus, it is important for world cricket that these two countries play against each other regularly,” he said. The PCB Chief also said that the board was nearly bankrupt and had no option but to play its ‘home’ series at neutral venues after the militants attack on the Sri Lankan team in March 2009.
“We would have gone bankrupt but playing matches at neutral venues bailed us out and our broadcasters were also very supportive. Today thankfully the board is in a stronger financial health and it will become better after the World Cup.” Butt also spoke in detail on the spot-fixing scandal, blaming the three banned players – Salman Mr. Butt, Muhammad Aamir and Muhammad Asif – for letting the country, the board and their team down.
“The truth is when Scotland Yard started its investigations we gave the players full support including legal help and the Pakistan High Commission also got involved but they were not honest with us and misled us by denying everything. “Later we found out that one of the players had made 140 calls and sent SMS, while another sent 120 SMS and calls after the incident first took place. They let us down and disappointed everyone a lot.”
