Akmal, Naved not involved in match-fixing: Butt

Islamabad:

Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ejaz Butt has claimed that he was talking about former captain Salim Malik and fast bowler Ata-ur-Rehman when mentioned two national team members being involved in match-fixing recently.

Butt's statement, made at a press conference, about the two players caused a furore as he gave the impression that he was talking about two current Pakistan cricketers.

Butt, however, told a hearing of the National Assembly standing committee on sports on Saturday here that he had referred to Malik and Rehman when a question was put to him on the match-fixing issue.

"I referred to these two players, who were already banned for life on the recommendation of the Justice Malik Qayyum committee 10 years ago," Butt said.

He also denied that he had said that the ICC had recently sent a report about two Pakistani players having links with bookmakers to the PCB.

"The ICC has sent no such report and the ICC has its own mechanism to deal with players it suspects of being involved in any sort of corruption," he said.

The PCB Chairman said it was unfortunate that the names of Kamran Akmal and Rana Naved were mentioned by the media in match-fixing scandal when there was no such thing.

"Match-fixing and indiscipline are two different issues, the media has mixed up both the issues," he added.

The Justice Qayyum judicial commission after a 18-month inquiry recommended life ban on Malik for his involvement in match-fixing and the same on pacer Rehman for committing perjury during the inquiry.

While Malik's appeal against the ban is still pending in the court, Rehman's life ban has been removed on appeal.

Butt also said that the inquiry committee formed to probe into the national team's poor performance in Australia would submit its final report on March 8.

"We have got a preliminary report but it is confidential and I can't share its contents publicly at this time. But I can assure you when the final report is with us we will send it confidentially to the committee and will also take the disciplinary action recommended against any player by the committee," Butt said.

To another question, the committee was informed that the State bank had carried out a report on the total assets of the board at present and declared that the PCB's net worth at the moment was Rs 700 million.

The PCB has complained about financial problems due to the refusal of foreign teams to tour Pakistan because of the security situation in the country.

Butt also told the committee that the board had signed a contract with former captain Waqar Younis and he will be paid a monthly salary of Rs 650,000 as the Pakistan coach.

"This is the amount or more demanded by the coaches these days, even foreign coaches want to be paid around USD 70,000-80,000 annually," he said.