Former Pakistan off-spinner Saeed Ajmal has made a very controversial statement regarding his Indian counterpart, Ravichandran Ashwin. Ajmal says Ashwin was deliberately kept away from the scene for some time to avoid being banned by ICC for an illegal action.
Ajmal has accused India of saving Ashwin from an ICC suspension by sidelining him for sometime and allowing him to correct his 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.
Ajmal was as quoted as saying by Cricwick.
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.
Even accounting for the fact that Ajmal may still be bitter about the number of instances ICC banned him for bending his arm over the legally allowed 15 degrees, his allegation on Ashwin is completely false since there hasn’t been any such “six months” period where he was sidelined.
The premier Indian off-spinner hasn’t been part of the limited-overs set up but is a regular feature of the Test side irrespective of the conditions. Ashwin has taken a whopping 409 wickets from his 78 Tests for India at an average of 24.69, including 30 five-wicket hauls.
The BCCI has taken the illegal action issue very seriously at the junior, domestic and international levels and has invested quite a lot in ensuring any chink in a bowler’s armour is resolved before he progresses to play for India.
Ajmal, meanwhile, also spoke of the 2011 World Cup semi-final and the instance when he nearly dismissed the great Sachin Tendulkar in Mohali. Ajmal feels the DRS wronged him and says the on-field call of ‘out’ should’ve been upheld.
The umpire who gave Tendulkar out, he would be ready to give the statement that he got it right.
he said.
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.
Ajmal added.
