Salman Butt,
the former Pakistan captain, has indicated his availability to the PCB
to take part in an anti-corruption rehabilitation program, ESPNcricinfo
has learned. Butt met with Pakistan board officials hours after Dave
Richardson, the ICC's chief executive, urged him and Mohammad Asif to cooperate with the authorities over their involvement in spot-fixing.
The PCB chairman, Zaka Ashraf, had already hinted at a route back
for the banned trio - Butt, Asif and Mohammad Amir - after they have
served their bans. Butt met with PCB officials at the Gaddafi Stadium in
Lahore on Tuesday and offered to complete the anti-corruption education
programme, which he is required to participate in to avoid a further
five-year suspended sentence becoming active.
Ashraf has given a clear indication that the players are free to try and
rebuild their careers in the Pakistan domestic game - once their
suspensions have bee
n served - but warned against further
transgressions.
Butt, 28, appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) for a
reduction in his five-year (plus five suspended) ban but the plea was
dismissed after the panel wasn't persuaded that the sanction imposed by
the ICC's independent tribunal was disproportionate. Butt, however, is
optimistic about his future in the game and believes he can make a
return to professional cricket after serving the remaining two years and
four months of his ban. He will be 30 when the suspension is complete
in August 2015.
The independent anti-corruption tribunal, chaired by Michael Beloff QC,
found Butt, Asif and Amir guilty of charges relating to spot-fixing at
the Lord's Test match between England and Pakistan in August 2010. In
addition, Butt was also found guilty of breaching the ICC's
anti-corruption code by failing to report an approach made to him by
Mazhar Majeed to engage in corrupt activity during The Oval Test match
earlier in the same month.
All three were suspended in February 2011 and later given custodial
sentences after being tried in the English courts. Butt served seven
months of a 30-month prison sentence, Asif was released from prison
after serving half of a year-long sentence, while Amir spent three
months in a young offenders' institution after admitting his charge at a
pre-trial hearing.
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