Shahid Afridi was a liar, manipulator because he’s a characterless person: Danish Kaneria

Former Pakistan spinner Danish Kaneria revealed that his ex-teammate Shahid Afridi has played a big part in his omission from the ODI squad and also noted that there were a lot of religious barriers headed by Afridi inside the team. Kaneria was banned for spot-fixing in 2012 by the ECB and he was banned for life from all the forms of cricket post that.

The leg spinner played for Pakistan from 2000 to 2010 in 61 Tests and 18 ODIs. He is the leading wicket-taker for Pakistan in Tests among the spinners with 261 wickets to his name in the longer format. Kaneria showed gratitude to Shoaib Akhtar for bringing the mistreatment of the former to light during his playing days as he was a Hindu.

I was always degraded by Shahid Afridi: Danish Kaneria

Kaneria noted Akhtar was the first to reveal the mistreatment in public and shared how the speedster had been kept quiet by authorities to not speak on the matter. He reckoned that Afridi had always degraded him since they both played for the same spot in the side as spinners. He called Afridi a “liar” after coming to know that Afridi had provoked the other Pakistan players against him.

“Shoaib Akhtar was the first person to talk about my problem in public. Hats off to him for saying it (how I was mistreated in the team because of being a Hindu). 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,” Kaneria said as quoted by news18.

Kaneria also felt that Afridi was jealous of him as he was performing well in the Test arena and noted that he was grateful to play for the country. He also requested the PCB to consider lifting his life ban as he felt that it has not allowed him to live peacefully.

“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,” he added.