LAHORE: Salman Butt was handed a significant role for the first time since he was banned for spot-fixing during the Pakistan’s tour to England in 2010 when the country’s cricket board appointed him as a consultant member of the national selection committee on Friday.

Salman, along with Kamran Akmal and Rao Iftikhar Anjum will assist Wahab Riaz — who was named as the chief selector last month — “by providing recommendations, collecting feedback and identifying top-performing talent in domestic cricket” according to the PCB.

The quartet’s first assignment, therefore, will be to advice Wahab on the selection of the Pakistan squad for Twenty20 International series against New Zealand, which follows the Australia games.

“Their role is to present this information to the chief selector and the selection committee for consideration in their decision-making process,” the PCB said. “The Consultant Members do not have any independent decision-making powers.”

The last time Salman was given a responsibility by the PCB, it was to captain Pakistan in the doomed tour of England. The opener emerged to be the central figure of the spot-fixing scandal, which also saw former pacers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir face suspensions.

While Salman and Asif were put behind bars for the offence, Amir, who was just 18 back then, was put under rehabilitation. Kamran and Wahab were also part of the Pakistan Test squad that toured England in 2010.

All four members of the selection committee will be serving their maiden stints in the role and their appointments are a continuation of the structural revamp of the Pakistan’s men’s team setup following it’s dismal show in the 50-over World Cup conducted by the PCB’s interim management committee chief Zaka Ashraf.

“When not engaged in selection duties, the consultant members may be assigned additional tasks such as conducting skills camps,” the PCB added in its statement.

Meanwhile, former Test fast bowler Sarfraz Nawaz isn’t happy how the PCB is handling the affairs of the sport and has alleged that a “Punjab mafia” is running the show.

“I am surprised over the appointments [of the consultant members in particular] and I want to know who is guiding PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf to take such poor decisions,” Sarfraz, who now resides in London, told Dawn over a phone call on Friday.

He lamented the lack of representation of Pakistan’s major cricket centres in the selection committee, especially that of Karachi.

“The representation of all the four provinces in the national selection committee had been the integral in Pakistan cricket but nowadays it was all about Lahore,” Sarfraz noted.

He was also against Pakistan team director Mohammad Hafeez travelling to Australia with the team and was of the opinion that the former batter should have stayed back and overseen the ongoing National T20 Cup to prepare the for the ICC T20 World Cup, which is set to be held in June next year.

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2023