Salman Butt and Michael Vaughan clash: Former England captain, Michael Vaughan is known to rile up an audience on social media, with his controversial takes about the game. On Sunday, it was Pakistani opener Salman Butt who made a verbal jibe on Vaughan by stating that he has “mental constipation”.
It all started with Michael Vaughan opinionating on Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson. The 46-year-old feels that Kane Williamson doesn’t get the recognition that he deserves, and even ranked him above the Indian captain Virat Kohli. He even went on to say that Kohli’s “commercial endorsements” gives him further advantage in front of the masses.
“If Kane Williamson was Indian, he’d be the greatest player in the world, but he’s not because you’re not allowed to say that Virat Kohli is not the greatest, because you’d get an absolute pelting on social media,” Vaughan had told Spark Sport earlier this month.
“I think Kane Williamson is up there with the great players across the three formats and he certainly matches Virat Kohli.
“It’s just he doesn’t have the 100 million followers on Instagram and doesn’t earn the $30-40 million or whatever Virat gets every year for his commercial endorsements.
Salman Butt’s strong disagreement with Michael Vaughan
The recent comments and comparisons between the two modern day greats by Vaughan wasn’t taken too well by Salman Butt, as he then expressed what he felt about Vaughan’s takes.
“Kohli is from a country that has a huge population. So, no doubt, he would have a bigger fanbase. Above all, his performances have been top notch. Currently, no other batsman in the world except Virat has 70 international centuries. He has dominated the batting rankings for a long period because his performances have been outstanding. So, I don’t understand what is the need of drawing comparison,” Salman Butt said on his channel.
“And who has compared the two? Michael Vaughan. He was a fantastic captain for England and was very gracious with the bat. But his output wasn’t on par with the beauty with which he used to bat. He was a good Test batsman but never scored a single century in ODIs. Now, as an opener, if you been the captain and have played 75-odd matches (86 ODIs) and haven’t scored a century, then there is no fun in discussing the records. It’s just that he has a knack of saying things that stir up controversies. Also, people have a lot of free time to stir up debate on any given topic,” he further added.
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“Williamson is great. He’s a top-class batsman, among top four-five batsmen in the world. Williamson may edge others when it comes to captaincy, but he (Vaughan) wasn’t talking about captaincy. In terms of players, there is a huge gap. Kohli’s stats and performances and the way he has won India matches, especially while chasing, it’s outstanding. Since the time both are playing, no one has been as consistent as Kohli. What Vaughan has said is irrelevant,”
Michael Vaughan hits back at Butt
After hearing out Butt’s recent statement, Michael Vaughan didn’t hold back to remind the Pakistani cricketer about his past.
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“No idea what the headline is… but I seen what Salman has said about me … that’s fine and he is allowed his opinion but I wished he had such a clear thought of mind back in 2010 when he was Match fixing !!!” Vaughan posted on Twitter.
