Oct. 28: Lawyers for Pakistan’s suspended Test captain Salman Butt are likely to raise the Suresh Raina case when their client’s appeal comes up for hearing before the International Cricket Council in Dubai on Saturday and Sunday, it is learnt here.
“If Suresh Raina can get away with the allegations (and that too by Britain’s most reputed newspaper), why are only Pakistan’s players targeted,” one of them asked.
According to Lahore-based sources, the lawyers and Butt are set to oppose the spot-fixing charges. “There is no direct evidence to this case and the charges even on this circumstantial evidence are not admissible in a court of law,” a source close to Salman Butt’s lawyers said. Interestingly, Butt has also hired former federal law minister Dr Khalid Ranjha along with former Test player and lawyer, Aftab Gul.
The players and their lawyers are leaving for Dubai on Friday morning and interestingly, arrangements for the laywers’ stay in Dubai have not been made by the ICC or the Pakistan Cricket Board but the concerned players (Butt and Mohammad Amir), who will bear the expenses.
The purpose of the hearing is not to decide whether or not the players are guilty, but whether or not they should be allowed to play on while the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit investigates the charges against them.