'My only international tour became horrible due to his taunts' - Ramiz Raja Jr accuses Waqar Younis of racism

Former Pakistani cricketer Ramiz Raja Jr. has accused Waqar Younis of racism during his stint in 2011. Ramiz becomes the second Pakistani cricketer to hit out against the former head coach’s antics after Ahmed Shehzad had blamed the former fast bowler for ruining his career.

Ramiz represented Pakistan in two T20Is back in 2011 under Waqar on the Zimbabwe tour but did not feature for the national side after that. The top-order batter has accused the former coach of racism and partiality and also blamed him for his failure on the international stage with the national team.

The batter recalled his time with the national team in Zimbabwe and termed it as horrible as he was constantly on the receiving end of taunts from the head coach because he was a native of Karachi. He also remarked that he wanted to leave the tour in the middle and get back home due to the hostility he faced.

“During my only international tour with the national team, I faced rude behavior from Waqar Younis. He taunted me a lot just because I belong to Karachi. That tour became horrible for me, and I just wanted to go back home,” he shared while speaking on a local channel.

He told me to learn Punjabi to survive in the team: Ramiz Raja Jr

Notably, Waqar was on the receiving end of criticism from Pakistani opener Ahmed Shehzad a few days ago, who blamed the former head coach for the downfall of his international career and accused him of fabricating a report against the batter.

Meanwhile, Ramiz also revealed an incident of blatant racism when he was not allowed to train with fellow Karachi cricketer Sohail Khan. The 34-year-old spoke about being instructed to learn Punjabi as all the team meetings were conducted in Punjabi.

“He told me to learn Punjabi to survive in the team. They used to speak Punjabi in all team meetings. Once I asked him to go for training with Sohail Bhai. He refused and said ‘this is not Karachi team,'”