Salman Butt Hits Back at Critics Amid Allegations of ICC Favoring India in T20 World Cup

NEW DELHI: Amid all the recent chatter revolving around the International Cricket Council favoring India at the ongoing T20 World Cup, former Pakistan captain Salman Butt has hit out at the critics, saying we don’t like our neighbors winning.

While former England captain Michael Vaughan slammed the global cricket body for setting up the T20 World Cup purely for India, many in Pakistan, including former captain Inzamam-ul-Haq, targeted India as Rohit Sharma and Co. made it to the finale of the tournament.

Inzamam, in particular, accused the Indian team of ‘working on the ball’ to generate reverse swing during the tournament.

Amid all the bashing of ICC and India going around, Butt said that the Rohit-led team made it to the final playing better cricket than anyone. Lauding the professionalism in the Indian team, Butt said every player in the team has clarity of their roles.

“People are talking a lot about ICC favoring India, they scheduled their matches in Guyana and other stuff. If Pakistan had scored 42 off 42 balls with 8 wickets in hand, then all following matches would have been ours. Let’s not think that if it is India we have to say something about them. If we talk professionally and on merit, they (India) have played better cricket. Their paths are very clear. India players have clarity of their roles,” Butt said.

Citing the example of Pakistan’s botched up future scheduling ahead of next year’s Champions Trophy in the country, Butt said India does everything in a planned manner.

“India do all relevant things and we do not. I don’t know who is our planner (who decides schedules). For us, if we have an Islam paper for exams, we are studying for English. Whatever we do is irrelevant. And then what we don’t like is India winning. I think we should not be saying such things. This does not present the right mindset of Pakistan. They (India) have done really well. They have reached finals consecutively across formats so they must be doing some things right,” Butt said.

India takes on South Africa in the T20 World Cup final on Saturday in Barbados.