India deliberately lost to England in the 2019 World Cup: Abdul Razzaq

Tags: India, Pakistan, England, Abdul Razzaq

Published on: Jun 03, 2020

Former all-rounder Abdul Razzaq is the latest Pakistani to claim that India deliberately lost to England in the 2019 World Cup league game, to hurt Pakistan’s chances of qualifying. Razzaq’s comments have come a couple of days after ex-spinner Mushtaq Ahmed alleged that West Indies players told him that India lost the match to stop Pakistan from reaching the knockout stages. The comments from the ex-Pakistani players have come despite Ben Stokes clarifying that he never claimed India deliberately lost the game

“We as TV presenters on that day all felt the same; I had requested to the ICC that yes you are keeping all sorts of sanctions for match/spot-fixing but in cases where a team deliberately loses a game to try and disqualify another like making sure Pakistan did not get to semi-finals, there should be a fine and penalty for this also”

“Those who have played cricket before can see through this; If a quality bowler is not bowling on the right line and length and not trying to take wickets, is giving away runs then he can be picked up easily; You can tell if he is doing that deliberately,” Razzaq was quoted as saying on a TV show by PakPassion.net.

“This should be part of the ICC rules and regulations – in the same way they have Level 1,2..5 breaches etc then they should also include that in one of the levels, so that if a team deliberately loses, doesn’t play to its caliber then there will be a fine on them,” he added.

When asked directly if he felt India intentionally lost this game, the former all-rounder added, “There is no doubt about this – we said this before and all cricketers are saying that – as I said, you can see this clearly; A player can hit a six but he is hitting a four or blocking the ball then that is easy to see”

Earlier, Ahmed told Pakistani news channel ARY Sports, “I was working with the West Indies squad at last year’s World Cup. After India’s loss to England, Jason Holder, Chris Gayle and Andre Russell said to me, Mushy, India didn’t want to see Pakistan qualify for the semi-finals.”

The whole controversy erupted after Stokes, in his new book ‘On Fire’ stated that India didn’t show any intent in the chase in the match in question. India needed 71 runs from the last five overs to with MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav at the crease. Chasing 338 at Birmingham, Virat Kohli’s men lost the game by 31 runs.

--By A Cricket Correspondent

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