Salman Butt (Punjabi/Urdu: سلمان بٹ , Salmān Buṭṭ; born 7 October 1984) is a Pakistani cricketer who was jailed in Britain formatch fixing in 2011.
Prior to his ban and prison sentence, he had been a regular Test and ODI left-handed opening batsman. He made his Test debut on 3 September 2003 in the third Test against Bangladesh, and a year later, made his ODI debut against West Indies on 22 September 2004. He was appointed captain of the Pakistan Test squad on 16 July 2010.
On 29 August 2010, he was implicated in allegations of spot-fixing. On 31 August 2010, he was stripped of the Pakistan captaincy, and removed from the ODI Squad pending criminal proceedings. As of 5 February 2011, Butt is serving a 10-year ban, of which five years is a suspended sentence. In November 2011, Butt was convicted and jailed for 30 months for conspiracy charges relating to the spot-fixing, along with Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif. On June 21, 2012, he was released from jail.
In August 2015, bans on Salman and fellow conspirators Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif were lifted by the International Cricket Council, meaning they are free to return to all forms of cricket from September 2, 2015
International cricket
After his debut, Butt was dropped, and he struggled to regain his place due to some stiff competition for the openers' spots. He returned for the Champions' Trophy in 2004 and scored his first fifty for Pakistan in the Paktel Cup against Sri Lanka. In the ODI against India on 13 November 2004, as Pakistan chased down 292, he formed partnerships first with Shoaib Malik, putting on 113, and subsequently with Inzamam-Ul-Haq. Despite having retired for seven overs due to severe cramp, he returned to steer Pakistan home, finishing on 108 not out.
Yet 2005 saw little improvement, and doubts circulated about his defensive technique, causing him to be shuffled in and out of the side. But things started looking up again during the winter Test series against England, in which he scored a century and two fifties, with a more cautious attitude to his innings building than he had previously shown
Spot-Fixing Scandal
In August 2010, Butt and two other players, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif, were among those named by a News of the World sting where undercover reporters paid an agent loosely affiliated with several players on Pakistan's squad a bribe in return for detailed information on when no-balls would be deliberately bowled.
Butt, Amir, and Asif were dropped from Pakistan team for the limited-over series (two Twenty20 games, and five ODI games). However, on 2 September 2010, after the warm-up List A game between Pakistan and Somerset, the International Cricket Council announced that they had suspended Asif, Amir and Butt under the provisions of the ICC's Anti-Corruption Code. The statement from the ICC stated that the three players were charged "under various offences under Article 2 of the ICC Anti-Corruption Code for Players and Player Support Personnel relating to alleged irregular behaviour during, and in relation to, the fourth Test between England and Pakistan at Lord's last month".
Later it became known that Butt and the other two players implicated in the scandal were in possession of bills with the same serial numbers as those the reporter had paid Majeed earlier. Butt was provisionally suspended from playing International Cricket due to the fact that the ICC wanted his name cleared before he resumes playing cricket. In late September, Butt filed an appeal to the ICC asking them to lift his temporary suspension. After Mohammad Asif had dropped his appeal against the charges so that he could understand the charges filed against him, Butt said he was determining to prove his innocence and that his appeal was going to go ahead.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Butt stated "I do not want to comment on The News of the World because everybody knows what kind of paper it is. Everybody knows about its reputation across the world." He also stated that he was linked to Mazhar Majeed as a player agent but not in any spot-fixing. He also stated that the video can easily be edited and modified and manipulated. One day before the hearing, Butt continued to state his innocence. The tribunal announced that a verdict on the decision had been deferred to 5 February 2011 and that the ICC also stated that the tribunal would rule on charges pertaining to the third Test match between England and Pakistan. Butt was the only player before the tribunal to face these additional charges.
On 5 February 2011, the three-man tribunal delivered its verdict. One charge was dismissed against Butt from the third Test match (batting out a maiden over), but the other charges (failing to report an advance from the third Test match and ordering Asif and Amir to bowl no-balls in the fourth Test) were proved, and Butt was banned from the sport of cricket for ten years, five of which were suspended should he not commit any further offences and participate in a Pakistani Cricket Board anti-corruption program
