Ikram Butt (born 25 October 1968) is an English former professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...

footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. He played at representative level for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, and at club level for

Featherstone Rovers Featherstone Rovers are a professional rugby league club in Featherstone, West Yorkshire, England, who play in the Championship. Featherstone is a former coal mining town with a population of around 16,000 and Rovers are one of the last "smal ...

( Heritage № 679),

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

, London Broncos,

Huddersfield Giants Huddersfield Giants are an English professional rugby league club from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, the birthplace of rugby league, who play in the Super League competition. They play their home games at the John Smiths Stadium which is sha ...

and

Hunslet Hawks Hunslet R.L.F.C. is a professional rugby league club in Hunslet, South Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, who play in Betfred League 1. The club was founded in 1973 as New Hunslet, they became Hunslet in 1979 and the club were the Hunslet Hawks ...

as a .

Background

Ikram Butt's birth was registered in

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

, he was the first south Asian to play either code of international rugby for England in 1995. Whilst with the London Broncos, he was convicted of perverting the course of justice and spent three months in prison as a result of a driving misdemeanour. He is the founder of the British Asian Rugby Association, and the British Pakistani rugby league team. In 2002-3 Ikram joined grass-roots side Victoria Rangers ARLFC for three seasons. During this time he showed he hadn't lost any of his skill from his professional days, The main reason for joining the Vics was to link up with Nigel Goodings who had formed a successful team at Victoria Rangers. In 2009 Ikram released an autobiography called ''Tries and Prejudice''. The book has sold close to 1,000 copies with more still to be sold, he gave all the proceeds to charity. The book's foreword is written by Bollywood star

Rahul Bose Rahul Bose (born 27 July 1967) is an Indian actor, director, screenwriter, and social activist. Bose has appeared in Bengali films such as '' Mr. and Mrs. Iyer'', '' Kalpurush'', ''Anuranan'', ''Antaheen'', ''Laptop'' and ''The Japanese Wife''. ...

. He currently works for Leeds Rugby as a Manager of the connecting communities project, as Sports Campaign Manager as a consultant for White Ribbon Campaign, and is vice president of "World Rugby League"

Playing career

Club career

Ikram Butt made his début for

on Sunday 26 August 1990, and he played his last match for Featherstone Rovers during the 1994–95 season. Butt played , i.e. number 2, in

' 20-16 victory over

Workington Town Workington Town R.L.F.C. is a semi-professional rugby league club playing in Workington in west Cumbria. Their stadium is Derwent Park, which they share with Workington Comets, a speedway team. They became Rugby League Champions in 1951 and ...

in the

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

Division Two Premiership Final at Old Trafford,

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

on Wednesday 19 May 1993. In 1995, Butt joined the London Broncos, and played their inaugural Super League season, he later joined

in 1997 before playing his final season as a professional player at

in 1998.

International honours

Ikram Butt won a

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

for

while at Featherstone Rovers in 1995 against Wales, and in doing so he became the first South Asian to play for England rugby league. He also captained

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

in their first ever match on 30 November 2011.

Genealogical information

Ikram Butt is the brother of the

footballer who played in the 1980s for Leeds and Featherstone Rovers ( Heritage № 595);

Tony Butt Tony may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer * Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leagu ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Butt, Ikram 1968 births Living people British sportspeople of Pakistani descent England national rugby league team players English people of Pakistani descent English rugby league players Featherstone Rovers players Huddersfield Giants players Hunslet R.L.F.C. players Leeds Rhinos players London Broncos players Pakistan national rugby league team captains Pakistan national rugby league team players People educated at Lawnswood School People from Leeds Rugby league players from Leeds Rugby league wingers