Yousuf can return to Pakistan team if he quits ICL: Butt

Karachi, Feb 8 (IANS) Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ijaz Butt Sunday offered Mohammad Yousuf a place in the national team again provided he cancelled his contract with the breakaway Indian Cricket League (ICL).

Yousuf is one of Pakistan’s greatest batsmen, Butt told reporters, but added that he will have to quit the rebel ICL to make his Pakistan comeback.

He also said he hoped a crisis initiated following Javed Miandad’s decision to quit as PCB director deneral would be resolved soon.

Butt said in an interview Sunday that both the PCB management and Miandad had equal share in the controversy that is to be probed by Pakistan’s Senate at a meeting in Islamabad Monday.

‘The board had its share in the reasons that led Miandad to resign but I must say that he (Miandad) too had a role in it,’ said Butt, a former Pakistan Test opener.

Miandad, a former Pakistan captain, decided to step down as PCB director general last month, saying that the board management was not willing to give him enough authority.

Speaking on the International Cricket Council (ICC) decision to once again reverse the result of the Oval Test, Butt said that the PCB should not be blamed for the verdict.

He said that the ICC took the decision on the basis of cricket laws.

At its executive board meeting in Perth last week, the ICC bosses voted in favour of reversing the Oval Test result in the favor of England as forfeiture.

Pakistan’s fourth Test against England at the Oval in August 2006 ended controversially when the tourists refused to take the field after tea on the fourth day to protest against the umpires’ decision to penalise them over alleged ball-tampering.

The umpires awarded the Test to England, making Pakistan the first team to forfeit a Test in cricket history. An ICC probe later cleared Pakistan of ball-tampering charges.

The result was reversed last summer on the PCB’s request but the ICC move drew flak from the MCC – the custodian of the game’s laws.

IANS