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Published 18:27 IST, December 29th 2019

Heartbreaking: Discriminated against, Danish Kaneria reveals he had to perform for support

Banned Pakistani spinner Danish Kaneria has revealed how he managed to gain support from a few of his team-mates during his playing days, amid discrimination

Reported by: Karthik Nair
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Danish Kaneria has said that he had to make his performance do the talking in order to win support after his former Pakistan team-mate Shoaib Akhtar had come forward and made a huge statement about how the banned spinner was ill-treated during his playing days. 

READ: Was targetted but never felt need or pressure to convert: Danish Kaneria

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'I had to prove with my performances': Danish Kaneria

''I used to get support because of my performances. Inzamam-ul-Haq, who was my captain when I used to play supported me a lot because I used to prove him with my performances on the ground and after that the players like Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan, Shoaib Akhtar they all used to support me for my performances as I helped Pakistan win matches during crunch situations'', said Kaneria on his Youtube channel.

''I have helped Pakistan get to winning positions from crunch situations. So, these were my abilities due to which I used to get support. I have always helped Pakistan achieve success during my Test career and this is the reason that I am a proud Pakistani and a proud Hindu and I am proud of having represented my country'', he added.

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'No credit to Danish for his performance': Shoaib Akhtar

Shoaib Akhtar went on to say that Kaneria was not even given credit for his match-winning spell in the test series against England back in 2005. Kaneria was amongst the very few Hindus to play international cricket for Pakistan. Having played 61 Test matches with 261 wickets under his belt at an average of 34.79. 

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“I used to get angry when anyone was discriminated on the basis of religion. When Kaneria won us the Test series against England (in 2005), I rebuked my team-mates for mistreating him. No one was giving Danish any credit for his exceptional performance," Akhtar said.

“The captain would raise eyebrows about him eating with us or taking food from the same table. I told him that you could be the captain but your conduct is disgraceful. This guy is taking so many wickets to win matches for us and you’re treating him like this,” he furiously said.

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20:36 IST, December 27th 2019