In August of this year, Pakistan captain Salman Butt (above, second from left) was implicated in a match fixing scandal during his side’s Fourth Test Match versus England. Preparing his defense in front of the International Cricket Council next month, Butt continued to proclaim his innocence in an interview with Sky Sports in which he explains how £29,000 came to be found in his London hotel room. His answers, as transcribed by the Guardian’s Andy Wilson, will prove unbelievable to almost everyone, the owners of Last Licks excepted.
Pressed on how he came to have so much cash in his room, he said: “Everybody knows the PCB [Pakistan Cricket Board] pays us daily allowances on tours and it was a long tour so about £11,000 of this money was from my daily allowances. Being captain I have extra entertainment allowance which amounts to about £4,500 from the tour “ which I had with me. The rest of the money was advanced payment for my bat stickers which I was under contract by Capital Cricket which shows on the back of my bat. People can have their opinions but I know where the money came from.”
When the figure of £29,000 was put to him as the sum found in his room, Butt again said it was “clean”. “Of course “ 100%. £2,500 was given to me for the opening of an ice cream parlour in Tooting. As you guys are from England you can go there any time to Tooting. I believe the name is Afters and the manager, the people working over there, they will tell you that I had to do the opening of the ice cream parlour along with Mohammad Amir. And that’s what we were paid for. And I believe that’s the only money which has the serial numbers of what the TV shows “ nothing else.”
In fairness to Butt, it should be stressed that several of the reviews of Afters Ice Cream on this Yelp-like website do mention the establishment’s unusually high prices.