Former chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Ramiz Raja expressed his dismay over the appointment of Salman Butt as consultant member of the chief selector’s team for the New Zealand series.
Raja termed Butt’s appointment as “insane” and went on to criticise the second member on the panel, Kamran Akmal. Rao Iftikhar Anjum is also a part of the panel. On December 1, the PCB announced in a formal statement that all three members of the selection panel had accepted their positions with immediate effect.
“It’s insane to have a selection committee consisting of a member whose decision can be termed as a display of filial affection or non-affection and another who was locked up for match-fixing,” Ramiz was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.
The former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) administrator has been very vocal in his criticism of tainted Pakistan cricketers. Some of them have been booked on charges of match fixing, spot fixing or found to be in collusion with bookmakers.
The 61-year old had strongly criticised the decision of the PCB to reinstate Mohammad Amir to the national team. His objection came after the fast bowler served a five-year ban.
However, PCB in a post later clarified that the three consultants will play no part in the selection process.
“Consultant members assist the chief selector by providing recommendations, collecting feedback and identifying top-performing talent in domestic cricket. Their role is to present this information to the chief selector and the selection committee for consideration in their decision-making process. The Consultant Members do not have any independent decision-making powers,” PCB said in a statement.
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Butt made a total of 33 Test appearances, 78 One Day Internationals (ODIs) and 33 Twenty20 Internationals for Pakistan, scoring 5209 runs in his career. Butt went on to play domestic cricket after his ban. However, PCB never called up Butt to play for Pakistan again.
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