Controversial Pakistan leg-spinner Danish Kaneria has lashed out at the England Cricket Board and the Pakistan Cricket Board for his plight. According to the spinner, he couldn’t remain associated with cricket due to racism by the ECB and incessant ignorance by the PCB.
Kaneria, who has played 61 tests and 18 ODIs for Pakistan, got embroiled in a spot-fixing controversy while playing for the English county side Essex. The tainted spinner has a decent test record at his disposal as he has picked up 261 wickets at an average of 34.79 in the 61 tests he played for Pakistan
In a recent Skype Interview with Uttarpradesh.org, Kaneria has expressed his grief over not playing for Pakistan. He said that he is glad to have played for the Pakistan national team and received a lot of fan support in his career.
ECB’s discriminating attitude
According to him, some people in the PCB were unhappy with his progress and regretted the fact that though PCB is putting a lot of effort to redeem convicted people like Mohammed Amir, Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif, yet they are doing nothing for his revival.
He also came down hard at the ECB blaming them for his predicament. According to him, it was the ECB who dictated the PCB not to look into his case despite no proof against him. Earlier, he also slammed the cricket board of the Three Lions for the discriminating attitude towards him.
He said, "If anything, the permission by the England and Wales Cricket Board to allow special treatment to Westfield, confirms their bias and discrimination towards me throughout this case." Kaneria couldn’t hold himself back when the English cricket authorities allowed the fast bowler Mervyn Westfield to play lower-level cricket with one year of his spot-fixing ban remaining.
The ECB anti-corruption tribunal had banned Kaneria for life in 2012 and Westfield was jailed the same year and banned from professional cricket for five years and club cricket for three years on spot-fixing charges. Both were banned after they played together for Essex in the English county championship.
Kaneria, in this recent interview, has urged the PCB to look into his case and do something for him. According to him, internal affairs within the PCB are more harmful to cricket than terrorism and he advised everyone to refer to the former Pakistan player Rashid Latif's column on PTV which gives an insight into what's going on in Pakistan cricket and how things can change
The leggie has also expressed his desire to play in the Indian Premier League and he wants to represent the Gujarat Lions squad. It seems that the tainted leg-spinner wants to stage a comeback after having some troublesome years in his career.
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