| GEO Sports | | Butt open to suggestions as England loom | Updated at: 0903 PST, Monday, July 26, 2010
LEEDS: Pakistan's novice captain Salman Butt is happy for his players to keep offering him advice during their forthcoming series against England if it helps to build a united team.
Butt, in his first match as captain, led Pakistan to a three-wicket second Test win against Australia at Headingley here on Saturday -- a victory that ended a record run of 13 straight Test defeats at the hands of the Aussies stretching back 15 years.
While Pakistan were in the field, several players could be seen wanting a word with their new skipper and, while some captains might see that as a challenge to their authority, 25-year-old opening batsman Butt was delighted.
"Being humans we are never happy, when you have advice you never want it and when you do want it you say 'nobody comes and gives it to me'," Butt said.
"I'm very lucky. The best thing they (the players) are doing is they are reading the game, they are in the game.
"It's not that I take all the advice, but it's important for me that every player is in the game and thinking about the game.
"If I'm open to every man, even a youngster playing his first game, then that will mean he will believe in me. So to build a team, I think this is a very important thing to do."
Pakistan just did enough to reach their victory target of 180 against Australia here at Headingley on Saturday, although they lost seven wickets before they were able to square a two-match series at 1-1.
Only a week earlier, Australia had thrashed Pakistan by 150 runs at Lord's, a defeat that prompted Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi to quit Test cricket.
But teenager Mohammad Aamer, well supported by fellow seamers Mohammad Asif and Umar Gul, took advantage of overcast conditions at Headingley for a match. |  | | | |
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