Asad Rauf rubbishes Saeed Ajmal's claims of 'getting banned because he was from Pakistan'

Asad Rauf, a former Pakistani umpire and member of the ICC Elite Panel of umpires, spoke about former spinner Saeed Ajmal’s claims from 2020 about his bowling action, which was deemed illegal. Ajmal had earlier claimed that his action was reported as illegal because he was from Pakistan. Rauf said that those claims by Ajmal are “nonsense”.

Rauf revealed that 63 of Ajmal’s deliveries in Sri Lanka were illegal. He added that claims of mistreatment of Pakistan players by the International Cricket Board (ICC) are not true and that such things do not happen at that level. He said that decisions such as reporting illegal actions are taken at a very high level and strictly by the laws of the game.

“Many people who have been banned have never been told the reason for it. They don’t know about the 15-degree rule and all of that,” said Rauf, during a chat with the YouTube channel Sports Paktv.

People should’ve been made aware of such rules: Asad Rauf

“Why did Saeed Ajmal get banned? 63 of his deliveries in Sri Lanka were illegal. It’s not because he was banned just because he was from Pakistan,” said the former Pakistan umpire. “People say ICC behaves like a step-child with Pakistan; such things don’t happen at this level. People should’ve been made aware about such rules.”

“People say, ‘Saeed Ajmal was banned because he was from Pakistan. Why was Harbhajan not banned?’ It’s all nonsense. Such decisions are taken at a very high level and strictly according to the laws of the game,” added Rauf.

In 2020, Ajmal claimed that the test that he undertook in 2009 and 2014 were similar, with the only difference being that the ICC had discounted the medical conditions, which they considered in the earlier test. “When Muralitharan left cricket then ICC thought there is this guy Saeed Ajmal and he is from Pakistan and they can’t do anything against our decision,” said Ajmal in 2020.

Ajmal, after making his debut in 2009, last played for Pakistan in 2015 in a T20I against Bangladesh. He appeared in 35 Tests, 113 ODIs and 64 T20Is, picking up 178, 184 and 85 wickets respectively. He announced his retirement in 2017 from all forms of cricket.