Pakistan-born Belgium cricketer creates history in T-20I

By Bipin Dani

On Saturday, Belgium’s captain Shaheryar Butt became the first cricketer in history to make a 50 & 100 on the same day in two different T20 international matches. 
 He made 81 not out against Luxembourg and then 124 not out against the Czech Republic.

Interestingly, he played two more T-20I on Sunday at the same venue (Pierre Werner Cricket Ground, Walferdange, Luxembourg) against the same two opponents. 

Speaking exclusively over telephone from Belgium, the 38-year-old right-hand batsman Butt said, “It probably hasn’t hit me yet, to be a world record holder. Personally I’m so happy and proud of myself and the team won and proved our progress. Maybe in a few days and weeks I’ll sit back and then realise what I achieved from that innings.” 

“Obviously it can be difficult to play back to back games. It’s tiring but after scoring runs it’s a good fatigue, because we want to play as much international T20 cricket as possible, it is something we deal with and will do more regularly in the future.” 

Playing back to back games in Europe is not unusual. 

“Due to funding and budgets when we meet other nations it’s more beneficial to organise two matches a day. Also every nation wants to improve their T20I rankings so more matches the better,” he further added. 

Dave Mullet has been working on players’ fitness and helping them to remain fit.  Butt came to visit his family in Belgium while staying there he started playing cricket. He liked the environment and decided to stay.  

Personally I’m so happy and proud of myself and the team won and proved our progress. Maybe in a few days and weeks I’ll sit back and then realize what I achieved from that innings