Published 19:27 IST, December 28th 2019
Inzamam-ul-Haq breaks silence on Danish Kaneria & Shoaib Akhtar's discrimination claims
Inzamam, who was one of the players who skippered the side during the playing days of Kaneria and Akhtar, refused to accept that there was any discrimination
Days after Shoaib Akhtar's big revelation about the Pakistan Cricket Team, in which he stated that former spinner Danish Kaneria was mistreated by the team for being Hindu, former Pakistan skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq has finally broken his silence on the matter. Inzamam, who was one of the players who skippered the side during the playing days of Kaneria and Akhtar, refused to accept that there was any discrimination in the team.
'Pakistanis have big hearts'
Speaking to a Pakistani journalist, Inzamam-ul-Haq said that the captain that Kaneria played most under was himself and that he never felt there was any such thing in our team. "I never noticed even a single example of any such thing in our team," Inzamam said. Earlier, Danish Kaneria had stated that skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq had always supported him and put the onus of naming the players who practiced discrimination on former pacer Shoaib Akhtar. Meanwhile, Shoaib Akhtar had stated that the 'captain' would raise eyebrows about Kaneria eating with the team which puts the entire matter in a pool of speculation as no one has been named yet.
Furthermore, Inzamam-ul-Haq also said that he is not ready to accept that Pakistan players have such small hearts and would do a thing like this. "I think Pakistanis have big hearts and we can accept everyone in our hearts," said the former skipper. Haq also reminisced about the tours to Sharjah where Indian and Pakistani players would share the same hotel and he would often see players from both teams sitting in each other's rooms, joking around and eating together.
The only Pakistani batsman to score 20,000 runs in international cricket, Inzamam-ul-Haq also cited an example from his captaincy days when he picked Danish Kaneria over Mushtaq Ahmed whom he stated was his childhood friend. "I gave Danish Kaneria selection preference because he was Pakistan's future and Mushtaq was dropped in my captaincy. So, there was no such thing as players were only picked if the prayed namaz," Haq said.
Shoaib Akhtar makes big revelation
Earlier on Thursday, citing examples of the mistreatment faced by Kaneria, Shoaib Akhtar claimed that he was even barred from picking up food from the same table as others because of his religion.
“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.
Updated 16:59 IST, December 29th 2019