Former Pakistan fast bowler Rana Naved ul Hassan on Sunday (May 3) claimed that some senior players "deliberately under-performed" during the 2009 ODI series against New Zealand in UAE since they were unsatisfied with Younis Khan's captaincy.

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In particular, Rana – who represented Pakistan in 9 Tests, 74 ODIs and 4 T20Is – spoke about two games during that series.

"We lost two ODI matches against New Zealand in the UAE during 2009 because some of the players involved deliberately did not play well," Rana told a local news channel, reported PTI.

The pacer also went on to say he withdrew his name from the tour as he didn't want to be a part of the conspiracy by seniors against the skipper.

The series was played following the 2009 Champions Trophy in South Africa, where a number of players gathered together and reportedly swore to oust Younis as they believed he was too "arrogant and abusive".

"I preferred to sit out of the tour. But I had informed Younis Khan that this was a conspiracy against you and that they wanted me to be part of it," he said.

Rana, however, made it clear that it was not a revolt against Younis, the person but Younis as captain.

"After he (Younis) became captain, his personality and attitude changed and some seniors (he didn't name them), who harboured ambitions of leading the side didn't want to play under him."

Notably, the names of senior players during that time include Mohammed Yousuf, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Abdul Razzaq, Salman Butt among others.

It is worth mentioning here that Pakistan had lost that three-match ODI series 2-1. While the Men in Green won the first game by a handsome margin of 138 runs, they coped defeats in the second and third match by 64 and 7 runs respectively.

(With PTI inputs)