Danish Kaneria Was Treated Unfairly By Pakistan Team For Being A Hindu – Shoaib Akthar

Danish Kaneria was only the second Hindu player after Anil Dalpat to play for Pakistan in international cricket. Kaneria played for Pakistan between 2000 and 2010  but his career ended when he was banned for life by the ECB in 2012 after being found guilty of corruption in a spot-fixing case.

In a sensational revelation, former Pakistani speedster Shoaib Akhtar confessed on a chat show that Danish Kaneria was treated harshly by his teammates because he was a Hindu. Shoaib Akhtar also said that Kaneria’s  Muslim teammates even stopped him from picking up food from the same table as others because of his faith.

“Captain would raise eyebrows about him eating with us or taking the food from the same table. I told him that you could be the captain but your conduct is despicable. This guy (Kaneria) is chalking up so many wickets to win matches for us and you’re treating him like this,” Shoaib Akhtar spoke on a cricket show titled ‘Game on Hai’.

Shoaib Akhtar also alleged that Danish Kaneria never got any credit for his extraordinary performances. “No one was giving Danish any credit for his exceptional performance. That was totally uncalled for. He won us the Test series against England (in 2005). He trapped all the top-order batsmen,” Akhtar said.

“I used to get outraged when anyone was victimised on the basis of region or religion. A Hindu born in Pakistan is entitled to represent his country. When that Hindu (Kaneria) won us the Test series against England (in 2005), I reprimanded my team-mates for mistreating him,” Akhtar added.