Michael Vaughan schools Salman Butt for going too far on Kohli-Williamson comparison

Former England skipper Michael Vaughan has given a befitting reply to tainted Pakistani batsman Salman Butt after the latter had belittled Vaughan's achievements in ODI cricket by saying that the Englishman has never breached the three-figure mark in the 50-overs format.

'I wish he had a...': Michael Vaughan

Taking to the micro-blogging site, the 2005 Ashes-winning skipper wrote that he is not bothered about what Butt has said about him which is fine as the southpaw is allowed to give his opinion after which Vaughan added insult to injury by saying he wished that the ex-opener had such a clear thought of mind back in 2010 when he was 'Match fixing'.

What did Salman Butt say?

"Kohli comes from a nation that has over a billion people, which makes him so popular, no doubt. But Kohli also has more centuries than any other player currently playing international cricket. He has been dominating the game for a long time with his outstanding performances. Kohli has 70 international centuries and no other player from this era has that many tons. I don't know why someone would make such irrelevant comparisons. As far as Vaughan is concerned, he likes talking about things that have the potential to spark controversies. Vaughan himself hasn't scored a single century in the ODIs, where he used to open the innings as captain," said Butt while interacting on his YouTube channel.

Earlier this week, Michael Vaughan had said that Kohli is only considered the world's best batsman because of the sheer population of India, which makes him more popular than Williamson.

“If Kane Williamson was Indian, he would 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. So, you all say Virat is the best purely to get a few more clicks and likes, few more numbers following here. Kane Williamson, across formats, is equally the best. I think the way he plays, the calm demeanor, his humbleness, the fact that he is silent about what he does,” Vaughan told Spark Sport.

The comparison between the Indian captain and his Kiwi counterpart comes a month ahead of the eagerly-awaited ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final, where India and New Zealand will lock horns against each other to win the inaugural edition of the 2-year-long tournament. Virat Kohli-led India and Kane Williamson-led New Zealand will play the one-off Test in England, starting June 18.

The infamous spot-fixing scandal of 2010 in England

Salman was one of the players who was punished for his involvement in the spot-fixing scandal in the 2010 Test match against England at Lord's. Apart from Butt, premier pacer Mohammad Amir and medium-pacer Mohammad Asif were also punished for their involvement in the scandal. While Amir made his way back into the Pakistan team in February 2016, the former opener and Asif have never played for the national team thereafter.