Danish Kaneria is a name who played an important role in Pakistan’s test team in the decade between 2000 to 2010. He played 61 Tests and 18 ODIs for Pakistan and is also the leading wicket-taker (261 wickets) as a spinner for them in the longest format of the game. Notably, his career came to an abrupt end when he was banned for life from all forms of cricket for spot-fixing in 2012 by PCB.
But as quoted by news18 Kaneria has come up with a shocking revelation about his former teammate and colleague Shahid Afridi. As per the former Pakistani leggie, Afridi played a major part in Kaneria’s omission from the ODI squad. He also noted that there were a lot of religious issues that were given head by Afridi against him.
Kaneria thanked Shoaib Akhtar for talking about the mistreatment he faced, for the first time in public. He also revealed that the authorities forced the former speedster to keep quiet. Kaneria then went on to call Afridi a ‘liar’ as he came to know that Afridi had provoked other players in the Pakistani team against him. He also felt that the continuous degradation on part of Afridi was out of jealousy as they both played as leg-spinners.
“Shoaib Akhtar was the first person to talk about my problem in public. Hats off to him for saying it. 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. We used to play together for the same department, he used to keep me on the bench and didn’t let me play the one-day tournament,â€- Kaneria said.
“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,â€- he further added.
