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| Edited By: IANS |Source: |Updated: May 01, 2022, 02:16 PM IST
Former Pakistan spinner Danish Kaneria revealed that his ex-teammate Shahid Afridi has played a big part in his omission from the ODI squad. The leg spinner played for Pakistan from 2000 to 2010 in 61 Tests and 18 ODIs. He is the leading wicket-taker for Pakistan in Tests among the spinners with 261 wickets to his name in the longer format.
Speaking to news agency IANS, Danish Kaneria said that it was then Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi who was against him. He said Shahid Afridi was against him because of his religion as he was a Hindu.
“He didn’t want me to be in the team. He was a liar, and manipulator because he’s a characterless person. However, my focus was only on cricket and I used to ignore all these tactics. Shahid Afridi was the only person who would go to other players and provoke them against me. I was performing well and he was jealous of me. I am proud that I played for Pakistan. I was grateful,” Kaneria told IANS.
The Karachi-born player also said that he was never involved in any kind of spot-fixing.
“Some false allegations were leveled against me (of spot-fixing). My name was joined with the person involved in the case. He was a friend of other Pakistani cricketers as well, including Afridi. But I don’t know why I was targeted. I just want to request the PCB to lift the ban so that I can do my work.
Kaneria showed gratitude to Shoaib Akhtar for bringing the mistreatment of the former to light during his playing days as he was a Hindu.
“Shoaib Akhtar was the first person to talk about my problem in public. Hats off to him for saying it (how I was mistreated in the team because of being a Hindu). However, he was later pressured by several authorities. He then stopped talking about it. But yes, it did happen to me. I was always degraded by Shahid Afridi.
