Wish he had clear thought when he was match-fixing: Vaughan slams Salman Butt
May 16, 2021
New Delhi [India], May 16 : Former England captain Michael Vaughan on Sunday slammed Salman Butt after the former Pakistan opener questioned his remarks on Indian and New Zealand skippers Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson respectively.
Earlier this month, Vaughan had said that Williamson would be termed the greatest player in the world if he hailed from India.
"If Kane Williamson was Indian, he'd be the greatest player in the world, but he's not because you're not allowed to say that Virat Kohli is not the greatest, because you'd get an absolute pelting on social media," Vaughan had told Spark Sport.
After these comments, Salman Butt had criticised Vaughan for choosing to debate on the performances of Kohli and Williamson.
After hearing what Butt had to say, Vaughan on Sunday tweeted: "I have seen what Salman has said about me ... that's fine and he is allowed his opinion but I wished he had such a clear thought of mind back in 2010 when he was Match fixing."
"Kohli belongs to a country which has a huge population. Obviously, he would have a bigger fanbase. On top of that, his performance is better too. Virat has 70 international tons at the moment, no other batsman from this era has that many," Butt had said on his YouTube channel.
"And he has, for a long period, dominated the batting rankings because his performances have been outstanding. So I don't understand what and where is the need to draw comparisons," he added.
Further talking about Vaughan, Butt said: "And who has compared the two? Michael Vaughan. He was a brilliant captain for England, but the beauty at which he used to bat, his output wasn't on par. He was a good Test batsman but Vaughan never scored a single century in ODIs. Now, as an opener, if you haven't scored a century, it's not worth discussion. It's just that he has a knack of saying things that stir up a debate. Besides, people have a lot of time to stretch a topic.
In 2010, Butt was implicated in the allegations of spot-fixing. As a result, he was stripped of the Pakistan captaincy, and he was also removed from the ODI spending criminal proceedings. He was banned from playing cricket for ten years, of which five years was a suspended sentence.
In November 2011, he was convicted and jailed for 30 months for conspiracy charges relating to the spot-fixing, along with Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif. In August 2015, bans on Butt and fellow conspirators Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif were lifted by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
