LONDON : Former Pakistan Test captain Salman Butt told a court in London
on Monday that he had ignored requests by his agent to fix cricket
matches against England.At his trial with fast bowler Mohammad
Asif, Butt, 27, said he did not fulfil his duty to inform the cricketing
authorities of an alleged corrupt approach by his British-based agent
Mazhar Majeed.But he insisted that he had rejected the agent's
suggestions to deliberately lose wickets at last year's Twenty20 World
Cup and score no runs in an over in a Test against England last summer."Never
in my whole life have I intended to do anything like that, play a match
in a certain way. I always do what is required to the best of my
ability," he told Southwark Crown Court.Butt said that the agent
rang him late at night on the eve of the final day of the Oval Test in
August 2010, in a conversation that was recorded by an undercover
journalist for the now-defunct News of the World newspaper.The
cricketer said Majeed had asked him, referring to a maiden over in which
no runs are scored: "You know the maiden that we're doing for the first
over? You know the third over you face, do one more maiden".Butt said he replied to Majeed: "Bro, just leave it, OK."He told the court: "I intended to say, 'that's enough, I've heard enough of that conversation'."When
the agent again allegedly called Butt the following morning making a
similar request the cricketer replied using the Urdu and Punjabi term
"theek hai", meaning "OK".Butt told the jury this meant he was trying to end the conversation quickly."I
was trying to get rid of the conversation, not to offend anyone... I
was absolutely not interested in what he was talking about," he said.
