Salman Butt, the former captain of Pakistan cricket team, after being released from an English jail has reached Pakistan and is now trying to prove his innocence in the entire spot-fixing saga. He is holding a series of press conferences in addition to appearing on talk shows of different television channels and trying to justify his actions and telling the nation that he had nothing to do with the no-balls. He should know that actions speak louder than words and the public is not a pack of fools. He was not alone in the spot fixing case and the investigations process was reasonably long where all three of them failed to prove their innocence. All the three Pakistani stars were finally convicted and jailed. The point is why only these three were involved and not the other players? Salman says that Mazhar Majeed was merely his agent and it is customary for all players to have agents to get them sponsorship deals and commercial benefits. Even if true, this is no excuse.
Being captain, he should have been extra careful in selecting his agent and then making deals with him. Given Mazhar Majeed’s shady reputation, why did Salman Butt choose to mingle with him at all let alone pick him as his agent? As the famous saying goes, “An acid test of a person’s integrity is to judge his conduct during money dealings”.
Moreover, where there is smoke, there must be fire. The video clips that were released show Mazhar Majeed with bagfuls of money and a jacket full of money being worn by Wahab Riaz and other such fishy activities. Why was all this gimmickry going on? And that too with members of the Pakistan cricket team? We don’t see such things happening to any other European or Asian teams.
Our players are frequently caught for their misdemeanours and indiscretions. It shows poor control of the team by the managers and other officials who accompany the team.
I recommend strict disciplinary action should also be taken against all the officials who accompanied Salman Butt, Aamir and Asif. These officials should be permanently debarred to go abroad with the teams rather they should be dismissed from service as well. In days of late Air Martial Nur Khan, no such thing ever happened.
We need professional chairmen, managers and other office holders and not political appointees or non professionals if we want the state of our cricketing affairs to improve.
MUHAMMAD AZHAR KHWAJA
Lahore
What purpose do Salman Butt and those who are advising him are trying to achieve, other then making them look stupid. He was given parole on grounds of him voluntarily admitting his guilt and by expressing remorse . He was tried in open court with Counsel of his own choice and public money in England. His subsequent appeals were refused on merits. He could have gone to the Supreme Court but he chose not to. He should just shut up and get on with life and stop causing more damage to cricket and what ever reputation is left for other Pakistani cricketers.
Comments are closed.