Earlier this month, Ravichandran Ashwin was in the news after former cricketer-turned-commentator Sanjay Manjrekar opined that the off-spinner isn't yet there in the list of all-time greats as he does not have a 5-wicket haul in SENA countries.
Now, former Pakistan spinner Saeed Ajmal has targetted Ashwin, citing that the Indian offie was deliberately kept away from the game for sometime so that he is not banned by the ICC.
Notably, Ajmal was banned quite a few times by the apex body because of his illegal bowling action.
“You changed all these rules and regulations without asking anyone. I was playing cricket for the last eight years. All those rules were for me. That’s it. During that period, Ashwin was out from cricket for six months. Why is that? So you can work on him and your bowler doesn’t get banned. They don’t care if a Pakistan bowler gets banned. They only care about money,” Ajmal was quoted as saying by Cricwick.
Ajmal also went on to talk about the infamous LBW decision of Sachin Tendulkar from the 2011 World Cup semi-final between India and Pakistan.
In that high-voltage encounter, Tendulkar failed to read Ajmal’s doosra and was trapped in front of the wickets. But he opted for DRS and it proved to be a masterstroke as the hawkeye showed that the ball was missing the stumps.
Ajmal, however, still believes that Tendulkar was plumb and the decision shouldn’t have been overturned.
“The umpire who gave Tendulkar out, he would be ready to give the statement that he got it right. And the meaning is pretty clear. The DRS can be checked manually. You can alter it any stage. I don’t know about that but even if I see it now and any umpire sees that, he will think that this will go on to hit the stumps. But that missed the stumps. Thousands of people have questioned me this, and I don’t know the answer.”
