A timeline of Ijaz Butt’s tumultuous three-year tenure as chairman of the PCB
ESPNcricinfo staff14-Oct-2011October 7, 2008 – Ijaz Butt is named as the PCB chairman, replacing Nasim Ashraf. Two members of the three-man selection committee – Salahuddin Ahmed and Shafqat Rana – resign immediately.October 20, 2008 – Six months before Pakistan coach Geoff Lawson’s contract is about to expire, Butt claims that “we have no utility for Lawson.”October 22, 2008 – Shafqat Naghmi, the PCB’s chief operating officer, reveals plans to sue Butt after being accused by the chairman of stealing official documents.January 13, 2009 – Butt describes the board’s financial status as “terrible” and claims reserves had been halved over the two previous years, in thinly-veiled digs at the administration of Ashraf.February 9, 2009 – Javed Miandad’s resignation as director-general of the PCB takes an ugly turn at a senate hearing as Butt and Miandad trade allegations over the fiasco.February 11, 2009 – Following a six-hour grilling of PCB officials in Islamabad, a standing committee on sports asks the president to dissolve the PCB because it was “incapable” of running cricket. Butt brushes aside calls for his sacking by senators, and says he continues to have the support of president Asif Ali Zardari, the board’s patron.March 5, 2009 – In the aftermath of the terror attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore, Butt accuses Chris Broad, the match referee for the Lahore Test, of lying in claiming that security was lax for the visiting team and officials. A week after the attack, Butt is confident that teams would tour Pakistan in “six to nine months”. He is also confident that Pakistan would remain a co-host of the 2011 World Cup.April 17, 2009 – World Cup matches are moved out of Pakistan following the security concerns. Butt responds with a statement that suggests double standards in the ICC executive board, which he claims ignored security concerns in the other three host countries.June 30, 2009 – Butt abruptly disbands the national senior and junior selection committees without providing details on when the next panel of selectors would be named.August 7, 2009 – Butt seeks legal advice on the means to tackle unsubstantiated match-fixing accusations during Pakistan’s tour of Sri Lanka.August 27, 2009 – Butt settles the legal dispute with the ICC over the hosting of the World Cup, and expects US$1.8 million as compensation.September 1, 2009 – Saleem Altaf is sacked as the COO of the board, after developing differences with Butt over administration matters.October 22, 2009 – Butt muzzles the centrally contracted players from speaking to the media without permission, in order to prevent controversies and leaks.January 9, 2010 – The head of Pakistan’s parliamentary committee on sports, Jamshed Dasti, calls for Butt’s sacking, calling him “physically unfit” and questioning his handling of the aftermath of the Lahore attack on the Sri Lankan team’s bus.January 22, 2010 – With the tour of Australia still on, Butt announces that Pakistan will have a new captain replacing Mohammad Yousuf after the end of the tour in early February.January 24, 2010 – Miandad hits back at Butt’s public comments on the salary he was drawing as PCB’s director general. Miandad also writes to the Pakistan president that Butt is “too old” to head the board.Ijaz Butt had “solid reasons” for the removal of Shahid Afridi as ODI captain•Associated PressFebruary 10, 2010 – The PCB is served a legal notice by the Cricket Council of the United States of America (CCUSA), over comments made by Butt, where he had referred to them as an “illegal” institution.February 26, 2010 – The PCB initially indicates that two players from the current Pakistan squad are involved in match-fixing, but later insists that the players, cases and incidents were old ones and that nobody from the current squad was involved.March 10, 2010 – The PCB carries out the deepest cull of a senior cricket team in many years, banning and fining seven of its top players after the side’s disastrous tour of Australia. Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf are banned from playing for Pakistan in any format for an indefinite period, while Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan get one-year bans. Shahid Afridi and the Akmal brothers are fined Rs 2-3 million [$24,000-35,000] for various misdemeanours and put on six-month probations. All banned players – except Yousuf who retires – appeal their bans, and are pardoned after lengthy wrangles with the board.September 19, 2010 – In an extraordinary outburst in the background of the spot-fixing controversy, Butt points a finger at the England players for their role in the batting collapse that cost England the ODI at The Oval and said the board was investigating a conspiracy, involving “august cricket bodies”, to defraud Pakistan and Pakistan cricket.September 23, 2010 – The ECB and the Professional Cricketers’ Association send Butt a pre-action letter, seeking a “full and unreserved apology” for alleging that England’s players were involved in fixing the outcome of the Oval ODI.September 29, 2010 – Butt apologises for claiming England’s players had taken “enormous amounts of money” to lose the third ODI at The Oval against Pakistan.October 20, 2010 – Younis Khan returns to the Pakistan team after a meeting with Butt to clear “all outstanding issues”, ending a nine-month exile.May 12, 2011 – Butt says the series of bans on seniors in the national team was part of his strategy to eradicate player power and maintain team spirit.May 27, 2011 – Butt says that there were “solid reasons” for the removal of Shahid Afridi as Pakistan ODI captain but that he will reveal those reasons at a later date.June 6, 2011 – The PCB sends a legal notice to the ICC raising questions about a proposed amendment to the ICC’s constitution, which would allow the governing body to suspend a member in case of government interference in the running of a national cricket board.October 13, 2011 – Zaka Ashraf, a top banker and businessman, replaces Butt as the chairman of the PCB
