All of a sudden I was being called a terrorist: Pakistan origin England cricketer Saqib Mahmood

England is getting ready for their tour to New Zealand from 1st November where they have to play five T20Is as well as two Test matches. New Zealand is the same team against which England won their maiden World Cup and now after four long months, the English team will play T20Is against the same opponent. ECB has made quite a few changes in the team that will travel to New Zealand and one of those players who will travel in the national squad has come out with a shocking statement about the behavior shown by England fans against him a few months ago.

Saqib Mahmood, the England cricketer is one of the four players that has been included in both England squads, alongside Joe Denly, Sam Curran and Matthew Parkinson. He has got the call up from ECB, on the back of his great performances during the English county season and was the leading wicket-taker in this year’s 50-over competition with 28 wickets at an average of 18.50.

Mahmood was called a terrorist after visa failure

Mahmood was a part of England Lions team that traveled to India during January 2019, but due to visa issues, he wasn’t able to travel along with the team. He didn’t get Visa just because he was a part of the English team but originally parental roots of bowler were from Pakistan heritage and the people in England started calling him terrorist over his failure in getting visa.

“All of a sudden I was being called a terrorist and I had not done anything wrong, People thought I was plotting something when I was going on a cricket tour. I was getting called not a lot of nice things, hence why I tried to forget about it all,” said Mahmood as quoted by BBC.

Young fast bowler Saqib Mahmood expressed his feelings about getting selected in both the squads, “I knew the squad was being announced at two so all morning I was literally just staring at my phone waiting for it to ring,” he said. “I ended up getting the call at twenty to two just as I thought the call was not coming. It was a great feeling – it was almost a too-good-to-be-true feeling.” Mahmood added.

In first-class matches, he has got 42 wickets in his 16 appearances with the best of 4/48. He made his first-class debut for Lancashire back in 2016 against Southampton.