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Journalism of Courage
Former Pakistan cricket Basit Ali has made a series of sensational allegations about India’s World Cup campaign, saying that they will intentionally lose their matches against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to make Pakistan’s progress to the semifinals difficult.
He also made allegations about India’s victories against Afghanistan and Australia, suggesting that India intentionally played poorly against Afghanistan and that David Warner intentionally underperformed against India.
Speaking on a TV show on Pakistan-based channel Ary News, Ali said, “India will never want that Pakistan make it to the semifinals. They have matches remaining against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Everyone saw the fashion in which they won against Afghanistan.”
When asked pointedly then if India would lose their matches intentionally to make Pakistan’s progress to the semifinals impossible, Ali said, “Nobody says teams lose matches intentionally, because people don’t have eyes.
He went on, “They’ll play in such a way that nobody will come to know what has happened. What happened in India’s match against Afghanistan? What did Australia do against India? What did David Warner do?”
Pakistan are currently locked in a fourway battle for one spot in the semifinals with England, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. India are yet to play their league matches against all three of England, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Pakistan and Bangladesh are tied on 7 points, just 1 point behind England. Sri Lanka, who have a match in hand over all three, are on 6 points.
Ali also made the surprising allegation that New Zealand had intentionally thrown a match against Pakistan in the 1992 World Cup. “New Zealand lost to Pakistan intentionally to Pakistan in 1992. Even Imran Khan will tell you that. The Kiwis lost so they could play the semi-final in their own country,” he said.
Basit Ali played in the early 1990s for Pakistan, having been compared to Javed Miandad in his earliest days. There had been allegations of match-fixing against Basit Ali himself during his playing days, most notably during his maiden Test series against West Indies.
