Asim Mohamood Butt (24 October 1967 – 30 November 2009) was a Pakistani cricketer who was primarily a left-arm fast bowler, and also a hard hitting lower order batsman. He played five

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

s (ODIs) for Scotland, all in the

1999 Cricket World Cup The 1999 Cricket World Cup (officially known as ICC Cricket World Cup '99) was the seventh edition of the Cricket World Cup, organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was hosted primarily by England, with Scotland, Ireland, Wales ...

. His best ODI bowling figures were two for 24 against

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

in a match where the Bangladeshis were limited to 183, but the Scots wilted in the low chase and Butt, coming in at ten, could only score one run. He tested positive for

MDMA 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), commonly seen in Tablet (pharmacy), tablet form (ecstasy) and crystal form (molly or mandy), is a potent empathogen–entactogen with stimulant properties primarily used for Recreational dru ...

during a match with

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

and was banned from cricket for a year.

Life and career

He played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

since October 1983, when he scored 40

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at t ...

and took one wicket in a drawn game against

Sukkur Sukkur (; ) is a city in the Pakistani province of Sindh along the western bank of the Indus River, directly across from the historic city of Rohri. Sukkur is the third largest city in Sindh after Karachi and Hyderabad, and 14th largest ci ...

in the 1983–84

Patron's Trophy The Patron's Trophy was a cricket competition that was held in Pakistan between 1960–61 and 2018–19 mainly among teams representing the government and semi-government departments, corporations, commercial organisations, business houses, banks, ...

. His career in Pakistan included mainly one-day games, and only yielded one five-wicket-haul – in the 1984–85

against a Lahore Division side where he took five for 53 in the second innings. In

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

he made his debut for Scotland, in a

Benson & Hedges Cup The Benson & Hedges Cup was a one-day cricket competition for first-class counties in England and Wales that was held from 1972 to 2002, one of cricket's longest sponsorship deals. It was the third major one-day competition established in Englan ...

game against

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, where he was named Man of the Match after taking three wickets for 42. However, Yorkshire still won the match by three wickets. His international debut came in the 1998 Triple Crown Tournament, where he ended with the

bowling analysis In cricket, a bowling analysis (sometimes shortened to just analysis, especially in the phrase innings analysis, and also referred to as bowling figures) usually refers to a notation summarising a bowler's performance in terms of overs bowled, h ...

of 10–3–14–1 against

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, although this was a minor match that did not have

List A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

status. Butt also played for Scotland in the

2001 ICC Trophy The 2001 ICC Trophy was a cricket tournament played in Ontario, Canada in 2001. It was the Cricket World Cup qualification tournament for the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Three spots in the World Cup were on offer and the Netherlands, host nation Canada ...

, where he took five for 11 against

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

, but only got one wicket in the remaining seven games. He did, however, top score in Scotland's five-wicket win over

UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

. Butt missed Scotland's first season in English National League cricket in

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, but came back in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

with three wickets against Yorkshire. In a season where Scotland only managed two victories, Butt took 11 wickets at an average of 31.72. He also played three first-class matches in the

2004 Intercontinental Cup The 2004 Intercontinental Cup was an association football match that took place on 12 December 2004 between Porto of Portugal, winners of the 2003–04 UEFA Champions League, and Once Caldas of Colombia, winners of the 2004 Copa Libertadores. Th ...

, where he was more successful, as he was Scotland's top wicket-taker with 16, including his second career five-for in an eight-wicket win over

– in a match where his bowling yielded nine for 72 in total. Butt's contribution played a major part in Scotland's qualification for the semi-finals stage, and he also took the first four wickets of the second innings in the final against

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, which Scotland won by an innings and 86 runs. Butt played three matches in the

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

season for Scotland, taking three wickets but being expensive, before he tested positive for

during a match with

. He was subsequently banned from cricket for a year. Butt died in his sleep, aged 42, in Lahore on 30 November 2009.

Death controversy

Butt's Pakistan born wife, now a UK national, claimed that she has strong suspicions that Butt faked his own death. She believes that the reason for faking his death is the fact that despite using all possible resources, she is unable to get his

death certificate A death certificate is either a legal document issued by a medical practitioner which states when a person died, or a document issued by a government civil registration office, that declares the date, location and cause of a person's death, as ...

. Due to Butt's alleged involvement with drugs and affairs, his wife thinks the motive behind faking death is either the drugs or another woman. However, Heriots Cricket Club's representative said they don't find any reason to believe that Butt faked his own death.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Butt, Asim 1967 births 2009 deaths Cricketers at the 1999 Cricket World Cup Scottish cricketers Scotland One Day International cricketers Scottish sportspeople in doping cases Doping cases in Pakistani cricket Pakistani emigrants to Scotland Cricketers from Lahore Pakistani cricketers Lahore City Blues cricketers Pakistan Railways cricketers Lahore City cricketers British Asian cricketers Scottish people of Kashmiri descent Scottish people of Punjabi descent British sportspeople of Pakistani descent

Life and career

Death controversy

See also

References

External links