Former Pakistani spinner Danish Kaneria has alleged that he was a victim of relentless communal taunts from fellow players during his time with the Men in Green- both on and off the field. Kaneria was only the second Hindu to play for Pakistan.
He played 61 Tests and 18 ODIs for Pakistan from 2000-2010, taking 261 and 15 wickets respectively.
Kaneria is the nephew of the first Hindu to play international cricket for Pakistan, wicketkeeper Anil Dalpat and to prove his point of religion discrimination, he shared a clip of a Pakistan-Sri Lanka match in 2014. In the caption to the video clip, Danish Kaneria implied he faced such suggestions almost every day.
In the video clip, Pakistan’s Ahmed Shehzad is seen telling Tillakaratne Dilshan the benefits of being a Muslim. Incidentally, Dilshan was born into a Muslim family and was known as Tuwan Mohammad Dilshan. But he converted to Buddhism and took the name of Tillakaratne Dilshan.
Ahmed is heard telling Dilshan that he would go “straight to heaven” if he converted to Islam: “If you non-Muslim and you turn Muslim, no matter whatever you do in life… straight to heaven.” A smiling Dilshan says something, and is met with the response: “Then be ready for the fire.”
Kaneria also shared a video of Waqar Younis praising Mohammad Rizwan for performing Namaz in the middle in front of Hindu players when Pakistan met India in the 2021 T20 World Cup match in Dubai.
This was seemingly Kaneria taking a dig at Pakistan’s already-gaping wound after Babar Azam’s team went down meekly to India on Saturday in the ongoing ICC World Cup 2023.
The Ahmedabad crowd had booed Babar Azam during the toss and Mohammad Rizwan also faced heckling from a faction after he was returning to the pavilion after his dismissal.
