Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt has refused to play the next edition of National T20 Cup, after being excluded from Central Punjab’s first XI.

According to sources, Central Punjab’s Head Coach Shahid Anwar offered Butt the opportunity to captain the second XI but the latter decided against accepting this as he felt that a youngster should be given a chance in his place.

Butt has featured in 82 T20s, over the course of his career, scoring 2349 runs at an average of 35 and a strike rate of 113.

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The National T20 Cup will be the curtain-raiser of the domestic season, with matches being held in Multan and Rawalpindi from September 30 to October 18.

Central Punjab Squad

Abdullah Shafiq, Ahmed Bashir, Ahmed Safi Abdullah, Ahmed Shahzad (subject to fitness), Aitzaz Habib Khan, Ali Zaryab, Anas Mehmood, Bilal Asif, Bilawal Iqbal, Ehsan Adil, Fahad Usman, Faheem Ashraf, Farhan Khan, Hasan Ali, Irfan Khan Niazi, Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Imran Dogar, Mohammad Saad, Muhammad Akhlaq, Nisar Ahmed, Qasim Akram, Rizwan Hussain, Saad Nasim, Salman Butt, Shahid Nawaz, Suleman Shafqat, Usman Qadir, Usman Salahuddin, Waqas Maqsood, Zafar Gohar and Zohaib Amanat.

Additional players

Ali Shan, Asfand Mehran, Atiq-ur-Rehman, Fahad Munir, Hammad Butt, Haseeb-urRehman, Junaid Ali, Kamran Afzal, Mohammad Faiq, Noman Anwar, Raza Ali Dar, Sohaib Ullah and Zubair Khan.

Centrally contracted players

Abid Ali, Azhar Ali, Babar Azam and Naseem Shah.