NEW DELHI, Nov 3: Unable to admit that India is playing better cricket than Pakistan in the on-going World Cup, a former Pakistani cricketer Hasan Raza accused the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the host Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) of “foul play.”
Raza, himself at the centre of controversy over spot fixing, suspected that the ICC and the BCCI were delivering special balls to India, which is assisting them in World Cup.
The cricketing world can’t stop raving about the collective efforts of India’s pace trio – Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami and Mohammed Siraj – following their hostile spells of bowling against England at the Ekana stadium in Lucknow and again against Sri Lanka at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai on Thursday in the World up encounters.
Shami, Bumrah and Siraj were breathing fire, accounting for eight of the 10 wickets against England and again combining to scalp 9 out of the 10 wickets which skittled Sri Lanka for their second-lowest ODI total of 55 in chase of 358 The India pace troika now has taken a total of 38 wickets between them.
But while Shami, Siraj and Bumrah have captured the imagination of a plethora of former cricketers and garnered praises from them for their spellbound bowling, but there are those who continue to belittle their efforts. Hasan Raza, the former Pakistan cricketer, who is no stranger to controversies, has levelled a strong allegation against the Indian team, accusing them of foul play.
Raza believes that the ICC and the BCCI are favouring the Indian team by delivering special balls and urged the matter to be looked into. “We are seeing that when they are batting, they bat really well and suddenly the ball starts doing things when India bowl. There have been 7-8 close DRS calls that have gone in their favour. The way Siraj and Shami were swinging the ball, it seemed like the ICC or the BCCI were giving them different and suspicious balls in the second innings. There needs to be an inspection done on the ball. There could also be an extra layer of coating on the ball for swing,” Raza said while speaking to a channel called ABN.
“India had three fielders in place and even KL Rahul was standing long behind the stumps. It means that the ball had that hardness even after so many overs. Shami picked 5 wickets for some 18 runs. Siraj got 3. I can’t imagine that these are international batters and they’re all getting out playing across. It’s almost as if the ball that is used earlier vanishes. So I suppose this should be looked into.”
Raza, who played 7 Tests and 16 ODIs for Pakistan as a batter between 1996 and 2005, has been previously embroiled in controversies himself. In 2018, the former Pakistan batter was caught on camera in alleged spot-fixing sting by an undercover Al Jazeera reporter. In the videos, he was recorded being in the same frame as former Mumbai cricketer Robin Morris, who was talking about the existence of spot fixing in T20 tournaments.
It was in 1996 at the age of 14 that Raza made his historic debut for the Pakistan, etching his name in the record books as the youngest player to grace Test cricket. He participated in 23 international games before stepping away in 2005. Raza’s true cricketing prowess shone brightly in the domestic arena, where he boasted an impressive resume. He featured in an astounding 232 First-Class matches under his belt, complemented by 197 one-day matches and 36 T20s.
(Manas Dasgupta)
