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In a surprising turn of events, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had included Salman Butt in the national selection panel only to remove him as a selection consultant a day later. Salman Butt, a tainted former Pakistan captain, had faced a five-year ban for his involvement in spot-fixing during the Pakistan and England Test match in August 2010.
Despite serving his suspension, Butt made a successful comeback to domestic cricket in 2016, showcasing his prowess as a batter and captain. However, the national team continued to sideline him from the national team which was not the case with his partner in crime Muhammad Amir. Amir was given a fair chance in the Pakistan ntional team.
The PCB's decision to include Salman Butt as a consultant member in the national selection panel, alongside former teammates Kamran Akmal and Rao Iftikhar Anjum, stirred a controversy. The backlash that PCB received was mainly beacuse of Salman butt's tainted past as he was one of the main culprits who was involved in the 2010 match-fixing scandal that brought much disrepute to Pakistan's cricekt globally. However, several reactions were hinted towards nepotism, especially given the close ties between Salman Butt and Wahab Riaz, who is the current chief selector of the Pakistan Cricket Board.
‘I don’t want PCB to get insulted for my decisions’- Wahab Riaz
At his press conference Wahab Riaz said, "'As a chief selector, it's my decision as to who will work with me and whose support I need. But people started discussing nepotism and dosti, due to which I am reverting this decision. I have already spoken to Salman Butt and told him that he cannot be a part of my team.
He added, "“I think some people perhaps started running an agenda because they wanted to cast dirt on the cricket board and extract personal benefit out of insulting PCB. Since I am a part of this organization, I didn't want any such thing to happen, especially due to my decision, so I took it back,".