Pakistan’s flamboyant all-rounder Shahid Afridi has hit out at disgraced former captain Salman Butt for criticising his performance in the World Twenty20 in a TV show, saying that a player who “tainted the name of the country” should not have been hired as an expert.

“I think the media should be careful while hiring experts and only hire those of clean background,” Afridi said in a swipe at Butt who appeared on ARY television recently as an expert for the World Twenty20.

Butt had called Afridi a disruptive force in Pakistan cricket and criticised his World T20 performance.

“The player, who tainted the name of the country in the cricketing world and is responsible for destroying a great talent like Mohammad Aamir, should be ashamed to even come in front of the nation,” Afridi said.

“When such experts speak they don’t have weight in their words and no one takes them seriously. Media houses should only hire people with a clean background to give their expert opinion,” he added.

The hiring of Butt and Mohammad Aamir, both of whom are serving five-year bans for spot-fixing, as experts by TV channels for the recent World Twenty20 sparked off a lot of debate and also left the ICC unhappy.

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