At the age of 85, veteran Pakistani wicketkeeper and PCB chairman Ijaz Butt died away in Lahore.
In 2008, Asif Ali Zardari, who was the president at the time, appointed him as the PCB’s chairman. He held that post at one of the most chaotic and tumultuous periods in Pakistan’s history of cricket.
Only five months into his presidency, a terrorist assault on the Sri Lankan cricket team and match officials resulted in the deaths of eight persons. For the greater part of a decade, this offensive practically put an end to Pakistani cricket at the international level. The ICC match referee Chris Broad then made furious claims about insufficient security, which Butt rejected as “lies.”
The Pakistani captaincy changed numerous times under his leadership, and Shoaib Malik was memorably described as “aloof and a loner” in a newspaper the day after he was let go. The PCB replied by placing harsh punishments on some of its own players after a disappointing tour of Australia.
Malik and Naved-ul-Hasan earned one-year suspensions in 2010, Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf received “indefinitely” bans, Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal, and Umar Akmal received six-month probations. Yousuf and Younis resumed playing Test cricket a few months later.
Three Pakistani cricketers were captured offering to deliver no-balls during a Test at Lord’s in return for cash: Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif, and Mohammad Amir.
The ramifications from that controversy would also be something that Butt would have to handle. The three players were given permanent suspensions, and Butt at least sometimes facilitated the worsening of the PCB-England relationship.
Butt was succeeded by Zaka Ashraf, the current chairman of the PCB, in 2011.
He played in eight Tests for Pakistan, making his debut in 1959 at Karachi as a wicketkeeper-batter against the West Indies. His last game was at The Oval against England in 1962. During Pakistan’s 1982 tour to Australia, he managed the group and twice served as the committee’s chairman. In addition, he served as the secretary of the PCB’s predecessor, the Board of Control for Cricket in Pakistan, from 1984 to 1988.
According to Ashraf, the head of the PCB management committee, “On behalf of the PCB, I want to express my deepest condolences on the sad demise of Mr. Ijaz Butt.”
“I had the honor of getting to know Mr. Butt personally, and I couldn’t be more respectful of him. Ijaz Butt’s family and friends have my sincere sympathies, and I want to reassure them that he will always be recognized for his services to Pakistani cricket.
