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LAHORE: The outgoing Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ijaz Butt on Wednesday declared that England-based Pakistani players’ agent Mazhar Majeed has made false claims about Kamran Akmal, Imran Farhat, and Wahab Riaz being involved in spot-fixing scam and asserted that he has made the PCB a much richer body at the time of his departure with more than Rs5 billion in the kitty.

Talking to Dawn, Butt whose three-year term ended on Oct 8, said: “When the names of these three Pakistan players were mentioned by Majeed in the past, the PCB immediately made contact with the ICC to know if they had any evidence of wrongdoing against the troika. And it was only after the ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat cleared the three players that the PCB allow them to continue their cricket.”

Speaking about his three-year tenure as PCB chief, Butt claimed that when he took over the charge, the Board was on the brink of bankruptcy as it had just Rs1.5 billion in its coffers while a good number of cheques carrying handsome amounts had bounced.

“But now, despite the fact that Pakistan has been playing its series off-shore, the accounts of the PCB are richer by more than Rs5 billion,” said Butt proudly.

“More importantly, another substantial amount of Rs6 billion will have been added to the PCB accounts by the end of next year, raising its overall balance to Rs 11 billion ” he said.

“The Rs6 billion will all come in foreign exchange and it will come through different resources and not just from the ICC,” he disclosed.

When asked to elaborate on the different sources of this revenue, Butt said many sponsors had been hired to run different projects of the PCB and that amount would gradually come through by end of 2012.

“I believe the PCB is in such a strong financial position that it can be run for next two or three years without any income coming in,” he claimed.

Butt revealed that on Aug 30 this year he had informed the patron-in-chief President Asif Ali Zardari that he was unable to continue as PCB chief and requested him to appoint any other person in his place.

He also dispelled the impression that he had ever requested for a six-month extension.

Wishing his successor Zaka Ashraf all the success in the job, he hoped that his appointment would bring further improvement in national cricket.

Reiterating that he had managed to crush the players power and now the situation was many times better than the past, he said: “I always remained strict on disciplinary matters and penalised players irrespective of their stature. That gave the correct message to them that no is above the law.”

However, he admitted that like every human being he might have committed mistakes but he always kept the betterment of Pakistan cricket as his top priority.

Expressing confidence in the current Pakistan team, Butt said it was quite capable of facing any team in the world with authority and competence.