India's Jasprit Bumrah, left, leaves the field with Mohammed Shami after India won their ICC Men's Cricket World Cup match against England in Lucknow, India. (AP) Wasim Akram has rubbished the comments made by his former Pakistan teammate Hasan Raza on Indian bowlers being given different balls to bowl.
“I have been reading about it from last couple of days. I want to have the same things these guys are having… sounds like fun. Beizaati apni to karani hi karani saddi bhi na karwao puri duniya vich (Don’t make fun of us in front of the world, please keep those insults to yourself),” Akram said on A Sports.
Former Pakistan batsman Hasan Raza has accused Indian team of foul play, saying the ICC and the BCCI are favouring the Indian bowlers by giving them special balls.
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“We are seeing that when they are batting, they bat really well and suddenly the ball starts doing things when India bowl. There have been 7-8 close DRS calls that have gone in their favour. The way Siraj and Shami were swinging the ball, it seemed like the ICC or the BCCI were giving them different and suspicious balls in the second innings. There needs to be an inspection done on the ball. There could also be an extra layer of coating on the ball for swing,” Raza told a Pakistani news channel ABN.
Akram explained how the balls are picked before the match.
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“It’s a very simple thing. The fourth umpire come up with a box of 12 balls. The team that win the toss, and if they are bowling then that team would pick the two balls in front of four umpires and the referee,” he said.
“The on-field umpire will keep the first ball in their right and the second in left. Then the remaining balls they take to the other dressing room in a box with lot of people with him. The second team will pick two balls and thereafter, those two balls will be shown to the on-field umpire explaining them exactly which team has picked what. I don’t know who comes up with such conspiracy theory,” he added.
Akram says there is no device in the ball and you can’t swing the ball with a device instill in it. He said: “There is no device in the ball. You can’t swing the ball with a device. For argument sake if you are trying to swing the ball we can say one is a heavy side, while the other is light side, but you can’t swing the ball with a device.”
Akram also explained why the Indian’s are bowling better in comparison to the others.
“The arguments in our country for the past three-four days is that no other bowlers are able to swing the ball. Also think, these bowlers maybe they have learnt something more, maybe they are better right now. Maybe we should appreciate them,” said Akram.
Former Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq said: “They have worked a lot on the wrist position and seam position. The moment they release the ball, you can see it in the slow motion.”
Shoaib Malik also chipped in saying,” When someone gets success, instead of praising that person, our first thought is negative. Instead of talking about the negative things we must learn from them.”
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