Zeroes: Salman Butt

 
So Salman, it transpires that you are a reprehensible cheat after all and that you share more than just a name with Chairman Ijaz. You Butthead.

With your silver serpents tongue you nearly fooled everyone. You certainly fooled us.

Your unexpected elevation to the captaincy when that loon Afridi abandoned ship just after leaving port was like a breath of fresh air. Out of chaos came order, instead of back-stabbing we had harmony (of sorts) and a dark future for Pakistan cricket suddenly looked brighter.

At the centre of it all, you looked like a natural leader of men and spoke eloquently – as we now know you are good with words – and results improved. Two wins and two losses against stronger, better organised teams and with your two best batsmen (three if you count Misbah) not allowed to play was a promising start. Yes, there were batting collapses a plenty, but progress was clearly being made.

So why throw it all away? Why take the easy way out?

It’s bad enough that you went dirty and probably coerced Asif to do the same. But why get the kid involved?

Oh how you must have lied and tricked him - as bad as a paedophile grooming his prey or a serial killer stalking his next victim. He would have looked up to you and respected you. You were his captain. He was 18 for Christ’s sake. He would have thought that he had to do what you said. But you knew that didn't you?.

We’re sure you told him it was fine. That it wasn’t cheating. That he wasn’t letting down his country or team-mates. That everyone did it. What harm could it do? If he took six wickets, no-one would care. As we said, you’re good with words.

But you knew what you were doing. You’re an intelligent man. Not a wide-eyed, ill-educated boy. You knew you were making him dirty. You knew you were compromising him for the rest of his career.

The ICC should have thrown the book at you. Nothing less than a life ban. But you can consider yourself lucky. With half of your ban suspended, you got the same punishment as Aamer. Do you really think that is right?

Do you feel any guilt? Any remorse? Or are you just going to try and weasel your way out of it? How can you explain the money in your room? All the banks shut were they? Or did you bank with Lehman's and Northern Rock? There are only so many ice cream parlours you can say that you opened.

Why don’t you come clean and apologise like a man? Why don’t you reveal the whole sordid story and tell the ICC about the other times you cheated and who else was involved? You can probably even write a book about it. You like money.

You’ve let your country down, your team down, your supporters down, your sport down and yourself down. But most of all, you’ve let the kid down. Just remember that the next time you look in the mirror.

Where next?

Mohammad Aamer: the waste of an irrepressible talent

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Zeroes: Kamran Akmal

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Check out all our other Reverse Sweep heroes and zeroes

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Comments

[simon]

Don't get me wrong, I'd ban the whole lot of 'em for life, but what makes you think Salman Butt is the worst? And why does everyone have so much sympathy for Aamer when they have so much vitriol for the others? I'd have banned all three for life.

But if you think Butt is the ringmaster, I think that's a little naive. This was going on before Butt -- but was just elevated into a position of more importance in the scam after he became captain. We've heard some of what Younis and Yusuf have had to say -- the Akmal's (and other) deliberate under-performances and trouble-making to get the old fixing regime replaced with a new fixing regime seem to be pretty typical of the way this has been being run. Salman Butt was just the figure-head for the current clique because he was a plausible choice for captain. I don't see any reason to treat him any different from Aamer -- they're both talented but corrupt young men who can point at others who've lead them astray, but ultimately must accept responsibility for their own actions.

[Amar Ujala epaper]

The match fixing scandal has just ended his rest of the career and he should also not be allowed to be associated with any form and level of cricket.

[IT jobs]

This site is great. i visit here everyday.