The Pakistan Cricket Board has given the green light to Mohammad Asif and Salman Butt to play for Wapda in a domestic one-day tournament in January, Sport360 has learnt.
Wapda wanted to field the duo in the on-going first-class Quaid-e-Azam Trophy but they were stopped by the PCB from doing so as the board felt that it would be too early for their return.
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The PCB had drawn up a long reintegration plan for Mohammad Amir, Asif and Butt but the two senior players were made to wait for a little longer.
But since Amir received a sixth-month reprieve on his five-year sentence and was charged with a Grade-II level offence, he was given the go ahead to play first-class cricket.
All three were punished in the infamous ‘spot-fixing’ scandal in England in 2010 which resulted in jail-time for the trio.
When the PCB domestic cricket committee officials were contacted regarding the development that the two players have been allowed to continue their careers, one of them stated: “Yes both Asif and Butt have been given permission to play the domestic one-day tournament and now they can appear for their team Wapda.”
Meanwhile, a PCB spokesman also confirmed the news saying that both are now clear to play top-notch domestic cricket.
“It’s true that the PCB has decided to let Asif and Butt resume their cricket careers in domestic cricket because they have followed the reintegration plan. They will be seen in action in January.”
Both Asif and Butt had been accompanying Wapda in different cities during their four-day matches and were seen regularly training and doing nets to keep themselves ready for the challenge.