That has led to great success on the field, with three league titles in a row in the Blind Cricket England & Wales Northern Development League, seeing off the likes of Lancashire and Durham to do so.
But far more important to the pair is the chance to give inner city Bradfordians the chance to shine, with their dedication rewarded as joint-winners of the Services to Diverse Communities prize at the 2024 Yorkshire Cricket Board and ECB Cricket Collective Awards.
Butt was at the ceremony at Headingley on Wednesday night to collect the award on behalf of the pair, and he spoke to the T&A at the start of the night.
He told us: “I’ve been in this industry for about 10 years and put a lot of time into it, much of it voluntary.
“To get that recognition for what I’ve done, it means a lot.”
The visually impaired team have home games at Great Horton Church Cricket Club on Allerton Road, while Butt also coaches at Manningham Cricket Club, an area of Bradford with a high South Asian population where sport can be a really positive outlet.
Butt said: “It means a lot to work in those places because Manningham, and Bradford itself, is well-known for its cricket, especially in the Asian community, where it’s massive.
“People say football is the main thing, but if you pop down to Bradford, you’ll see all the youngsters loving their cricket, watching it and playing it.
“For me to be a part of that, teaching those youngsters the game, is amazing.”
It was fitting that Malik and Butt were joint-winners of this award, with the latter explaining: “Arif and I work together, we’re good friends, and we established the club a few years ago.
“Initially it was just an idea, about whether we could possibly open a blind cricket team.
“But now we’re here having had lots of success and having won so many trophies, so happy days.”
And the club’s success has even led to a branching out from cricket, Butt revealing: “We also do blind tennis, with our courts on Heaton Road, and blind baseball, for which we’re pushing to have proper facilities, though those are in the pipeline.
“Cricket is a big success for us, it shows in the trophy cabinet with three successive development league titles in a row.
“But we’re looking to get funding from organisations to add more sports to what we already offer, like blind football.”
Cricket is Butt’s first love though, and he said: “My dad, Taj, raised me into a very sporting family.
“Ever since I was a young kid, cricket was all I knew, playing it then coaching it now.
“It’s always been in my DNA and being from Bradford, it’s such a big thing being involved in cricket.”
And that childhood love for cricket is one Butt loves passing on to the next generation.
He said: “It’s the youngsters I’m most focused on with coaching, from around six to 15 years old.
“It’s developing those kids to get into the game and hopefully turning them into stars.”
