Pakistan's Rana Naved-Ul-Hasan claims he was racially abused by Yorkshire fans

Naved-ul-Hasan played county cricket for Yorkshire in 2008 and 2009.

By Sameer Deodhar - 16 Sep, 2020

Former Pakistan pacer Rana Naved-ul-Hasan has made controversial revelations against the Yorkshire fans. He has revealed that he endured racist abuse from the local crowd while playing county cricket for Yorkshire in 2008 and 2009.

This news comes a couple of weeks after former Yorkshire captain Azeem Rafiq said it out in the open that the racial abuse he received from the Yorkshire cricket system almost pushed him to commit suicide.

The 42-year-old Pakistani pacer backed Rafiq in a recent interview and has commented that he faced a lot of discrimination on similar lines too.

Naved-ul-Hasan told ESPNCricInfo, "I fully support what Azeem said and this has been the case with me as well. I never spoke about it because, as foreigners, we were temporary and somehow I managed to accept the way it is."

Azeem Rafiq slams his former club Yorkshire; says he was close to committing suicide due to racial abuse

"There was systematic taunting. To us as overseas players from Asia, when you are not able to perform, the home crowd which should be supporting us, instead started hooting and would taunt us with racist slurs like 'p***'," he added.

He also added that this type of abuse was limited to when the players could not perform well and the crowd was quiet when Naved-ul-Hasan was picking up wickets. There was a change of attitude in the club and they were given smaller rooms because they were Muslims.

"If you are performing then you get all the space but, in case I am not taking wickets, the attitude suddenly started to change. They started to give us a tough time, giving me a smaller hotel room, and there used to be a clear case of discrimination," he claimed.

(With inputs from ESPNCricInfo)

By Sameer Deodhar - 16 Sep, 2020

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